


The Burning Nightmare

by FallenSakuraTree



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-13
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-14 10:58:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 22
Words: 171,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4561956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallenSakuraTree/pseuds/FallenSakuraTree





	1. Chapter 1

N: I recently got myself hooked onto Pokemon and this idea has been rattling around and I really felt the need to get it out. I took a lot of inspiration for the world as a whole from The Sun Soul written by 50caliberchaos. I highly suggest you check it out, it is a great read and I cannot wait for the sequel. This world will be darker, not as dark as The Sun Soul, but dark all the same.  This is an AU story so if you want something closer to the game or anime this is probably not going to be for you. If you are looking for romance this is going to be a slow build. If you are looking for gory violence and some gritty fighting this may just be the ticket. I have rated it M mostly for violence and some cursing. I really don’t write lemons because I just am terribly awkward at it so most you will probably get are some implied actions. Some characters like Paul and Cynthia will be introduced a lot later on in the story so don’t be surprised if you only see a few for a while. Others will come and go as I need them like Team Rocket. Final note I will try and keep true to the characters but  again this is A/U for a reason.

 

/\ /\

( 0 0 )

Chapter 1  – The Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar 

Lance glanced up from his conversation with his cousin Clair at the sound of  his door opening unannounced. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Lance reluctantly he hit the button to active the desks intercom. “Lori …I told you  no  visi …” T he visitor apparently had not felt it necessary to wait for clearance and had barged right in. A groan left Lance’s lips the moment he identified the intruder. The si ght of Ash Ketchum greeted Lance and the Dragon Master was not in any particular mood to deal with whatever issue Ketchum would be bringing up in a moment . In the back ground  Lance registered

that Lori was currently responding to him, he did not even pay attention to the words though. “Never mind Lori.”From previous experience with the young man, Lance knew that Ash played fast and loose with protocol at best. Once again he tuned Lori out and diverted his attention from Clair and the intercom to Ash. 

“So what brings Ash Ket chum to my office?” Lance asked while attempting to keep  a ne utral expression on his face. Lance couldn’t say he was  excited to have Ash barge in on his conversation with  Clair or the fact that with Red away it left him directly in charge of Kanto and Johto Rangers.  Clair snort ed in derision  the moment she spotted the pest of a Ranger . 

A sh shot both the Dragon Masters a disarming smile before stepping fully into the office. Dressed in his normal attire of heavy duty cargo pants in black with a matching  black shirt that clung to his  upper body, and a grey vest, Ash took the lack of response as an invitation to come further into the office . To finish off his ensemble he wore dark black fingerless gloves with blue gems on the inside of his wrists and black hiking boots . “Well I was just stopping by to hand in my r esignation.” With that Ash plopped a heavy stack of paper down on Lance’s desk. 

Once again Lance heard Clair snort in the back ground. Silencing his younger cousin with a  quick glare , Lance proceeded to page through the documents that Ash had dropped on his desk. Flipping through the papers was enough to show Lance that the documents were legitimate and Ash was in fact handing in his resignation. Many a Ranger whether they were regular corps or elite had dropped the same papers on his desk in the past and Lance rarely ever batted an eyelash . Ash well despite any misgiving that Lance may have on the subject …Ash was no regular ranger, Elite or otherwise. 

Fi nally after a moment of silence, Lance decided to speak. “Bull shit. We bot h know that Red is grooming you to take over the combined leagues of Kanto and Johto.”  Lance leaned into the desk, his 

elbows resting on the desk. “Why the sudden decision to stop? Getting bored now that Team Rocket has been run out of Kanto?”

Ash just grinned back while scratching the back of his head. “You know I did n’t actually do anything to run Rocket out of Kanto, Red was behind most of it. The rest of the Elite Four took the remainin g credit due. I was just  doing my job as a Ranger .” 

“Hm m…of course  Red, land ed the final blow but we b oth know you ended  Rocket’s operations on Cinnabar.” Lance continued before gla ncing back at the paper work. Lance noticed that Ash had requested a removal of his  Elite Ranger status. The status of Ranger would automatically come up if someone were to query his information in any League database or scan the identification record on his  dex . “Now why would you remove your status from your identification…even retired Rangers are by law, allowed to identify themselves as Rangers, once a Ranger always a Ranger right?” Lance ended his question with a raised eyebrow.

Chuckling nervously, Ash once again sent a disarming smile at the two Dragon Masters in an attempt to s ilence their looks of skepticism. Well for Lance it was skepticism while Clair was not even keeping the look of disdain from entering he r expression. “Well you know…traveling the w orld… ummm fresh start? ” 

“ Riiiight the Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar just walks in and resigns never to be heard from again .” Clair finally decided to  speak up. Her voice came out in a drawl and conveyed her sarcasm before Clair  rolled her eyes.  “What’s next? Going to find a princess to save and live happily ever after?”

Ash sucked in a deep breath…every time he was called that, it felt like a punch to the chest. The easy going smile slid off his face, replaced, by a fr osty expression. “Don’t ever call me that again, Dragon Master or not I have no qualms about ending you right here, right now! ” Ash glared at Clair his eyes 

briefly glowed red before the gems that were embedded on his gloves let out a soft pulse.

Clair unfortunately did not seem to get the hint to stop while she was ahead. “You earned that name fair and square. When you landed on Cinnabar with Lance and I, the whole island was under Rocket control,  but you…you and Blaine killed them all. There was no mercy…I saw it all. You even tur ned their secret weapon s project  against them. The bodies were strewn everywhere…in pieces and  e verything…everything was on fire.” Clair finished with a frosty look that clearly said she was not impressed with his little temper tantrum.

Even before the events at Cinnabar,  Clair never got along with Ash. After the events at Cinnabar her dislike had slowly turned to outright hatred of the man still standing by the door. Even worse Ash acted as if nothing was a big deal…but when he got angry. Well Cinnabar Island was a proving  ground of his rage. “The population of Cinnabar Island was close to two million before you and Blaine started your offensive against Rocket. Oh well I am sure they are recovering…I mean i t has been two years, they’re at what half a million now ?” Clair ended her little  jab with a small smirk crossing her face . Really any time she got a jab or two in at Ash before Lance stopped her it was a win in her book. 

Clair never noticed that Ash had gone completely silent…shaking now from rage. The gems on embedded on his gloves had started to pulse at a higher rate of speed in an attempt to compensate for the red working its way into his eyes. Finally after regaining some composure, he spoke, his voice barely going above a whisper.  “ Let’s settle it Clair . You seem to be begging for me to put you into the ground and I am more than willing to if that is your desire, you fucking cunt. ” 

“Bring it on! Your little temper tantrum will break against the might of my Dragon’s defenses!” Roaring back at Ash, Clair at this point was on her feet and looked about ready to make good on her threat of starting a fight. 

Lance glanced up from the paper work that had been dropped  on his desk. A quick assessment of the situation and Lance realized that Clair showed no signs of backing down. Despite how smart Clair was in battles sometimes in social situations she had qualities that were left wanting. “Clair, leave, now .” Lance  directed his attention to Clair, his look brooked no argument.  “We will finish with your report on Agatha at a later date .” 

With a final huff Cla ir vaulted herself over the chair that stood between her and Ash . She pressed by Ash with a final glare before she was out the door. Clair closed the heavy oak door with a final slam. 

Ash stood there by the entrance, surveying the office for the first time since he stepped in. He took a moment to cool off.  The room was fairly Spartan, probably due to the fact that Lance rarely spent time in the office. The window to his left in the corner, which Clair, had been sitting in had the shades drawn. He could vaguely make out the sunset behind the heavy shades. The rest of the room was fairly boring with white washed walls, an executive oak desk, and of course two chairs in front of said desk. “So…if that is all.” Ash left the question hanging.

For the first time during the meeting Lance showed some amusement break across his face.  “Really ? You think I would let one of our top Elite Ranger s just walk out without an explanation other than that you are done and wish to travel. Not to mention you are dumping this one on me  while Red is gone off to who knows where?  How would I explain this to him Ash?” Lance finished with a snort. He could just imagine it now. Explaining to Red that his protégée in all but name had just upped and left with no reason other than he want ed to travel . Lance shook his head before returning his attention to Ash. 

For his credit Ash did not break immediately under the intimidating gaze of Lance. Well he held out for a minute…alright he held out for all of 30 seconds before trying to laugh it off. “Well I am sure Red will understand…it was his idea after all.” 

Lance grumbled slightly before leaning back in his chair. He closed his eyes in annoyance. As always Red had his fingers in many pots and he did not always feel the need to inform the Elite Four of everything. “So what mission is it?”

Ash laughed again scratching his head a little. “Oh you know…Red heard of a new gro up forming in Hoenn and the remainder of Team Rocket is somehow involved . Well of course someone needed to check it out and report back. That someone being stealthy, deceptive, and most of all loyal to Red’s cause to wipe Rocket off this Earth with prejudice…and of course that someone is me!” Ash declared while pointing his thumb right back at himself. 

Fighting the urge to groan at Ash’s description he leaned forward in hi s desk again and stared directly at Ash. Lance studied the Elite Ranger for a moment prior to  speaking . “Well I can’t say stealthy or deceptive would be your forte. Please just tell me you are not taking any  Pokémon that are too conspicuous and related to your time in Cinnabar. The Rocket survivors may not have seen your face but you know they remember your Pokémon .” 

With a wave of his hand, Ash flash ed five pokeballs, each with the badge of a Kanto Ranger emblazoned on the top of the ball before Lance.  Putting on a placating smile and speaking to Lance as if he were a five year old and not the leader of the Elite Four. “Relax…nothing too out of place. I guess I should say Charizard and  Infernape will not be joining me. I suppose Salamence will not be joining me for this mission either.” Ash finished with a smile before clipping the pokeballs back onto his magnetic belt. 

“Well thank the heavens for that.” Lance muttered imagining for a moment Ash’s version of undercover investigation was riding on the back of Salamence while he used Charizard or Infernape to “question” suspicious people. 

“Well if that is all…I just need you to update my  Pokedex and remove my Ranger status. As far as the people of Hoenn will know, I am just Ash Ketchum, traveler from the Kanto frontier. I will be traveling and competing in the Hoenn league gym battles. Hopefully by visiting all the towns and speaking with the gym leaders there, I can pick up any hints of discord and follow if back to the source.” Ash handed his  Pokedex over to Lance. 

Lance glanced at the beaten up  dex for a moment before plugging it into his computer. His fingers ran over the keyboard for a moment. Now and again moving a finger up to swipe something on the screen and removing the item completely from the  dex . In  under ten minutes Ash became a regular trainer. Just to make sure everything was synced, Lance made sure to manually remove Ash’s Ranger status from the interconnected League Battle System. The next step was removing the battle data  that was automatically recorded during any pokemon battle sanctioned or not . Lance knew that Ash did not understand the concept of holding back but he could not leave Ash’s near undefeated record on the  dex . Instead he placed Ash in an above average bracket. “Done…now get out of my office. Also…I do not want to hear about the Hoenn region being turned into a duck shoot. Try using some of that strategy you use during a match while you investigate.”

Ash gave Lance  a thumbs up before picking up the reprogrammed  dex and walking out the door.

He did not even make it out the door before Pikachu who had been waiting patiently in the reception area jumped up onto his shoulder. “ Pika …Pi!” 

Ash grinned for a moment at his companion’s excited greeting. “That right Pikachu! We are off to Hoenn!” 

Pikachu nuzzled against his trainer for a moment before concentrating on his balancing act while Ash navigated the crowded halls of  Indigo Plateau.

Once Ash managed to get out of the building and onto the grounds he selected one of his pokeballs. He threw it out “Pidgeot! Go!” In front of Ash a red beam of energy shot out of the pokeball. It formed into a large and majestic looking bird. Compared to other Pidge ot, this one was nearly double the size. The bird took in its su rroundings momentarily before she started to preen . 

Ash smiled at his giant bird’s vanity. Some things just didn’t change. “I am going to need a ride to Hoenn region Pidgeot.” The giant bird knelt lower to the ground allowing Ash to climb onto the giant bird. Pikachu climbed into Ash’s backpack for the flight and curled up to take a nap. Ash patted the bird on the back of the head to let it know he was on and ready.  “But first! I need to stop off at Oak’s lab to pick up some supplies and see Gary one last time before heading out!”

With a few giant flaps of its wings the giant bird took off from Indigo Plateau. Pidgeot kicked up small dust devils as it gained altitude. Once Ash felt they were at a comfortable height he patted the bird again before holding onto some of the bird’s feathers.  “Alright Pidgeot! Set yourself up to cruising speed.  “ Ash knew full well if he did not specify their agreed upon cruising speed the giant bird would take it upon itself to beat it’s old record. He hoped he would not beat Brock to the region by too much. Brock  was still technically on a league sanctioned mission and would not be available for another month or so. Of course Ash did not really know how  taking a cruise ship to Petalburg City counted as an escort mission . Ash had decided  to start out in Littleroot Town and travel up to Petalburg city. As Pidgeot settled into a cruising speed the ride evened out and Ash allowed himself to relax. He let his mind wander…hoping against hope that Red was wrong when he informed him he heard of rumors from Hoenn . Where Red was, Ash had no idea, but that was Red for you. All he knew that he was tasked with making sure this possible threat did not turn into something that may threaten Kanto or Johto. 

/\ /\

( 0 0 )

“Put yourself down right there by the backdoor Pidgeot.” Ash needlessly pointed towards the Ranch that Pidgeot ferried him to on a regular basis. 

  
“ Eot !” Pidgeot acknowledged, beating its wings at a faster rate to slowly bring the pair down to the ground. 

Ash hopped off of his ever faithful bird pokemon and returned Pidgeot to his pokeball in a solid beam of red light. “Hey Pikachu time to get up, we’ve arrived at Professor Oak’s!” 

The little mouse pokemon gave no response in return to Ash’s voice. Sighing a little at his pokemon’s ability to sleep through just about anything, Ash entered Professor Oak’s residence without bothering to knock. Ash was a regular after all and Professor Oak had the lab and surrounding forest wired with so many security cameras that he wouldn’t be surprised if the good Professor had been aware of his impending arrival for a while now. 

Stepping into the kitchen, Ash scanned the interior for any indication that either Gary or Professor Oak  would present themselves. After waiting a moment, Ash decided it was safe enough and proceeded to raid the cabinets that Professor Oak normally kept fully stocked for supplies. 

“Hey Pikachu…ketchup.” At those words, Pikachu popped out of Ash’s bag and proceeded to tackle the ketchup bottle that Ash had found. With Pikachu happil y nursing the bottle of ketchup, Ash returned to his stealthy pilfering. 

“And just what do you think you are doing young man.” 

‘Busted…’ Ash thought as he slowly turned towards Professor Oak. “ Er … hehe …hey Professor…” 

Tapping his foot while impatiently waited for Ash’s response, Professor Oak found Ash’s response wanting. “Well?”

“Well…uh…I just stopped by for some supplies.”  Ash responded .

Professor Oak resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Ash’s ability to state the obvious. A man of science he may be but even Professor Oak had his limits. “I can see that Mr. Ketchum. May I ask why you are pilfering from my supplies? It isn’t that far to a League depot from here.” 

“Well yeah…but…” Ash stopped a moment before pulling out a storage ball. Much like pokeballs these specialized items were used by trainers, Rangers, and citizens alike to  transport large quantities of supplies or other items. Shooting the Professor a grin, Ash  dematerialized several boxes of food that he had found to his liking in the pantry. “Well your stuff always tastes better and I will be without Brock for a while.” 

Groaning in annoyance, Professor Oak decided that holding back his impatience was just going to give him a migraine or worse when it came to Ash. “Be that as it may, Ash , money doesn’t grow on trees.”

“Well just take it out of my Ranger account…” Ash waved his hand in dismissal of the Professor’s concern. 

“Well well well if it isn’t Ashy boy…and surprise surprise you are raiding our pantry…again. Don’t you think I have better things to do with my time than shopping to replenish our supplies every time you vi sit? ” Gary appeared in the kitchen through the back door while running a hand through his hair to make sure it fell just right. 

“Seriously though Ash  what the hel l it looks like you are packing for a six month expedition.” Gary leaned against the counter top while observing the amount of food that Ash continued to suck up into 

his storage ball without any signs of stopping. Then again six months of food for a normal person probably amounted to two weeks for Ash.

“Well I  kinda have a mission from Red in Hoenn and I don’t really know the area.” Ash responded to Gary’s inquiry. 

Rolling his eyes at his friend, Gary shared a look of exasperation with his grandfather. “You’re going to Hoenn not uncharted wilderness. In fact I know for a fact you have a few pokemon from Hoenn. You can’t tell me you have never been there.”

Waving off Gary, Ash finished up with his final storage ball and loaded it back into his backpack. “Yeah but that was years ago and normally I only really went to see Professor Birch in Littleroot town for some missions and correspondence.” 

Professor Oak decided to step in since it appeared that his grandson was starting to twitch a little. “So Ash, do you need anything from me or any pokemon changes before you depart?” 

Ash appeared to think for a moment before he counted off his pokemon. With a slight shrug he decided  that one of his pokemon was not exactly equipped for what he needed for the mission. “Well I was going to take Gardevoir but I think Sceptile will be better for this mission.” Casually tossing the pokeball to Professor Oak, Ash shouldered his pack. Pikachu abandoned the half dead ketchup bottle to return to his trainer’s shoulder. 

Belying his age, Professor Oak deftly caught the pokeball and quickly pocketed it. “I’ll be back in a few minutes with Sceptile.” 

Nodding his thanks to the Professor, Ash turned his attention to Gary. “So in the mood to join me, Gary , I could use a Watson to my Holmes .” 

Pulling a face at the comparison, Gary responded in a sarcastic matter. “Ash if you are Holmes this investigation is doomed from the start even if I am your best friend even I know a fruitless mission when I see one. I ’ll give you two months before you go on a purge and burn through Hoenn.”

Shaking his head, Gary gestured outside indicating he wanted to get out of the small space. Either that or Gary just wanted to get Ash away from the supplies. “ Anyway, y ou know I gave up on  ever  being a Ranger after that incident at Black Hall.”

“Yeah…” Ash responded while following Gary out of the back door. 

The pair just walked down the road into Pallet Town in companionable silence. Gary did not feel inclined to continue on the subject of Black Hall and Ash luckily had enough tact to not push the issue.

After a few more minutes Gary finally gave into the urge for a cigarette. Pulling one free from one of his lab coat’s pockets, Gary cupped his hand against the wind before lighting up. 

“You know Leaf would have your hide for that.” Ash commented lightly. 

“Yeah well she always was a mom in disguise.” Gary retorted. “Besides life’s too short.” 

Ash nodded at that. “Still…”

Chuckling a little, Gary shot his companion a smirk. “You gonna harp on me about this as well Ashy Boy?”

Shaking his head a little, Ash managed to shoot a tight smile back to Gary. “Nah…Leaf was the only one that could keep you in line anyway.” 

“More like keep us both in line, Ashy boy. That girl was a force to be reckoned with. I don’t know how you ever could stand dating her.” Gary nudged his friend in jest. Normally Ash wouldn’t talk to Gary 

about Leaf for this long. It was a bit of a sore subject for both of them. 

Deciding to bridge what the two considered a sensitive  subject, Gary took another pull from his cigarette.  “So any  tasty girls at the League ? I know you aren’t nearly as good looking as I am but I figure even you could pull in at l east some poor girl that could be swayed by your Elite status. ”

Ash just shrugged a little and continued to walk . “ That’d be too much like cheating on her .”

From the closed off expression on Ash’s face, Gary took this as a sign to stop his line of questioning. “Yeah I know I know I know… forever in your heart …you are such a loser. ”

Ash made a noncommittal  shrug, obviously he was done with the subject if he wasn’t rising to Gary’s bait.

Gary stopped suddenly which caused Ash to stop as well before looking back at Gary with a raised eyebrow. 

Taking another drag on his cigarette, Gary motioned to the opening to the Pallet Town grave yard. Smoke from the cigarette curled upwards before dissipating into the air. “I’ll wait here if you want to say hello.” 

Ash hadn’t even realized that they had made it to the Pallet Town graveyard. There was a moment of hesitation before Ash gave Gary a grateful smile. “Yeah it’ll be nice to talk to her again. It has been a while and she’ll miss me in Hoenn.”

Chuckling a little bit, Gary just shook his head in mock disbelief. “Even in death she still has you by the balls, Ashy Boy.” 

A nasty glare was shot at his best friend before Ash walked through the  entrance and made his way 

up the path to the newer section of the grave yard. The Rocket War had unfortunately seen the need to expand the Pallet Town grave yard which once housed a mere hundred graves had expanded to hold close to a thousand. 

Finally Ash found himself at Leaf’s grave. Ash and her parents had her buried near the back which went right up to the nearby forest. Ash found it poetic that Leaf was surrounded by leaves at all time. 

Last year he had tied a wind chime to the nearest tree it reminded him of her laugh. It also made it feel as though she was still there listening to him. 

Kneeling down by the grave, Ash placed a hand on the headstone. The granite was warm from the sun that managed to pierce the tree’s leaves. “Hey Leaf, it’s Ash.”

“I just wanted to let you know that I am going to Hoenn.” A breeze blew through the grave yard causing the wind chime to play against the wind. A small smile crossed Ash’s face in response. 

“I know I know. I will be careful don’t worry. Sorry I don’t visit as often as I should. I’ve just been busy…I know it is no excuse but well it will be a while before I’m back next.” 

Sometimes Ash felt like a crazy person when he would talk to Leaf’s grave but it always made him feel better so in the end he always returned to speak with Leaf whenever he was in town.

“So how has Pallet Town been? I hope Gary has been keeping you company.” Ash slowly traced the words on Leaf’s grave stone. Reading it for the millionth time, Ash always found himself reading over the words. 

Here Lies Leaf Green e

Daughter, Protector, and Ranger of Kanto.

May the light of her life be forever a beacon in the  dark

 

Blinking rapidly, Ash attempted to dispel the  tears that were gathering on the edges of his eyes. “ I really miss you Leaf. I…I sometimes just feel like I am walking through life with no real direction. Ever since you died I’ve just been going through the motions. I know it is silly and you would just berate me for crying over spilled milk.”

“ Pika … pi .” Pikachu’s ears drooped a little. The tiny electric pokemon  attempted to comfort his trainer by patting Ash’s head with his tail. Even if he did not understand human’s need to bury their dead, Pikachu still felt a sense of loss over the girl who always brought him ketchup packets. 

The wind chimes went off again after another breeze picked up. Forcing a smile onto his face, Ash picked himself back off the ground and back to a standing position. “I love you too Leaf.”

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Ash just stared at the grave marker. Sometimes life wasn’t fair, it especially wasn’t fair that Leaf had died while he had lived. Clenching and unclenching his hands in his pockets, Ash stared into the grave marker as if willing Leaf to appear from behind the marker. 

The red was seeping into his eyes and once more the blue gems on his gloves pulsed a little. “I’ll kill them all Leaf. I swear I will end what we began together.”

“Chu!” Pikachu looked on with a sense of sadness. Ever since Cinnabar Island the little pokemon knew something had fundamentally changed in Ash. It both scared and excited him. On one hand he got stronger on the other hand much like Ash he lost control and even the small pokemon knew that one day Ash would not be able to come back from the brink.

Turning back to path out of the grave, Ash started back towards the entrance.  Gently rubbing 

Pikachu’s head, Ash found his thoughts returning to the upcoming mission. He just missed the final note of the wind chime playing a mournful tune to the empty space in front of Leaf’s grave. 

When Ash made it back to the entrance he found Gary still waiting by the gate. Clearly Gary had started another cigarette probably more out of boredom than anything else. The auburn haired researcher raised his free hand to greet the Ranger. 

“Hey…how’s Leaf?”

“Good…I guess. I miss her Gary.” Once again the pinpricks threatened to overflow over his eyes and once more Ash violently pushed them back. 

“Yeah so do I Ash, so do I.” Gary slung his arm around Ash in an attempt to lift the melancholy mood. “We must be a sorry sight. I bet this would earn us a beating from Leaf.” 

A small smile found its way to Ash’s face. “Yeah…well I should probably get Sceptile from your grandfather before I get going. If I don’t leave soon I won’t get to Littleroot until well after dark. I don’t th ink Professor Birch would enjoy me showing up at two in the morning.” 

“ Yeah.” Gary fell back into silence and continued to walk along with Ash back to the lab. Every now and again he would pull a drag of his newest cigarette. It was an unfortunate habit he had picked up after Black Hall. Leaf had started in on him about it but she had been dead less than six months after Black Hall so honestly he had never had a reason to quit. 

Too soon for either of their likings the pair found themselves back at the lab. They found Professor Oak waiting for them by the back door. The older man took in the expressions on their faces but decided not to comment he knew where they had disappeared to and the reason as well . Professor Oak  notice d the  remains of a cigarette in Gary’s hand. A slight frown rose to the Professor’s face but 

again he did not feel it was his place to comment. Gary was after all a grown man and could make his own decisions.

“Hello boys,  Ash I have your Sceptile.” Without further comment, Professor Oak pulled the pokeball from his lab coat and tossed it to Ash. 

Ash grabbed the pokeball out of the air and quickly attached it to the magnetic belt with his other pokeballs. “Thanks Professor.” 

“Oh and don’t think I haven’t noticed that ancient  dex you have been carrying around.” Shaking his head in amusement, Professor Oak pulled out an advanced prototype from his lab pocket. “I did the liberty of  deactivating it and moving your personal info over to the new one.” The new  pokedex was a matte black that one would not immediately identify as a  pokedex since almost all models had a metallic or glossy finish to their paint.

“Thanks Professor.” Ash commented before taking the offered  dex . 

“Great why not just invite his Charizard into the lab Gramps! That thing won’t survive a week.” Gary sometimes questioned the old man’s sanity. 

“Hey!” Ash yelled at the  not so  veiled insult. 

Professor Oak laughed aloud before patting his grandson on the shoulder. “No worries Gary, I would not give Ash a standard model, no offense Ash.” 

“None taken.” Ash muttered sullenly. 

“This model you will notice is a new prototype for Rangers on extended missions. It has the capability to make and receive phone calls. It has also been constructed with high density ballistic materials and 

can withstand a direct impact from a Dragonite’s hyper beam attack.” Professor Oak really was in his element. “The best feature though is that there is a brand new voice module added no more boring electronic voice! Give it a try!”

“Uh…ok…” At Professor Oak’s prodding, Ash pointed the device at Pikachu and waited for the  Dex to pull up the information.  A moment later the  pokedex started off reading a moment later…in Professor Oak’s voice. “I see you have found a Pikachu ! This little rodent may look cute and harmless but grab its tail and you will surely get a jolt! Believe me this one time when I took a trip to  Sinnoh I ran into …oh right, back to the matter at hand, this is  an electric type pokemon and stores electricity in its cheek pouches.  The highest voltage I ever recorded was from a Pikachu that belonge d to a trainer from Pallet Town, o ver 20,000 volts!” 

Pikachu looked mildly offended by the description. Gary and Ash had mirroring looks of both shock and disbelief. 

“Thanks…I think…” Ash was honestly a little too shell shocked by the well to be honest…terrible description.

Gary on the other hand had no qualms about voicing his opinion. “What the hell Gramps! You have really gone off the deep end this time! That is possibly  the worst thing I have ever heard !”

Professor Oak laughed aloud as he rubbed the top of his head. “Well I do admit it has some bugs to work out.” 

“Bugs…right… ummm anyway to switch the voice off…” Ash tentatively asked. If he was stuck listening to Professor Oak’s round about description of any new pokemon he ran into he may end up testing the device’s durability. 

Professor Oak nodded before snatching the  pokedex out of Ash’s hand. “Of course I added a detailed description mode if you would like me to switch over to that. It really goes into some interesting details about the pokemon you scan that you just don’t get on the regular version!” 

Ash quickly snatched the device out of Professor Oak’s hands before the crazy bastard could turn the  dex into a true torture device. “That’s alright Professor! I am happy with the regular mode. I uh…I’ll call you if I can’t figure it out.” 

“Well alright…good luck Ash and call if you need any pokemon transferred.” Professor Oak left the tw o friends alone to say goodbye.

The door shut softly behind Professor Oak. Ash absently rubbed the back of his head. “Well I guess this is good bye for now Gary.”

“Take care of yourself Ashy Boy, you may not be quite the failure you used to be but just remember you will never be as great as me!” Gary laughed aloud before clasping Ash’s hand in his own. A smile played across his lips. “Try not to destroy Hoenn.”

Laughing a little, Ash squeezed Gary’s hand before releasing Pidgeot.  “No way!” Ash and Pikachu mounted Pidgeot. “I’ll be back soon and take care of Leaf while I am away!” With a quick nudge Pidgeot started to release gale force bursts of wind to create enough lift for takeoff. 

Gary covered his eyes with his fore arm while  waving with his free arm. Ash waved one last time before he nudged Pidgeot into flight. Holding on tight Ash yelled over the wind to be heard.  “Alright Pidgeot! Destination Littleroot!”

“ Pidgeoooot !” With a burst of speed the giant bird took off leaving a visible light trail behind her.

 

Ash looked out over the vast tree tops below and could see the sparkling ocean in the distance to the left . First they would cross over Kanto then Johto. If he got lucky  they would arrive in Hoenn by night fall. 

 

A/N: Well there we go first chapter complete.  May will be introduced in the next chapter near the end. Brock will appear in Petalburg City and will join them as well. Jesse and James will show up as well at some point.  Read and review if you please! Of course if you don't like it no big deal. I'll be posting the chapter slowly but surely to catch up with what I have on fanfiction.net. Find me under Ryan Moon. 


	2. The Trouble with Littleroot

A/N: I will finally get some exiting battling in on this chapter I promise. I cleaned up some inconsistences and hopefully some grammar. I also took out Gardevoir from Ash’s rotation and changed a few things for the battle. I did not end up using Gardevoir like I originally thought I would so I have cut her out. I also wanted a confrontation with Team Magma to make a little more sense.

 

Chapter 2 – The Trouble with Littleroot

Outside Littleroot Town -

 

The sun was just starting to set when Ash spotted the familiar town of Littleroot. During Ash’s previous travels as an Elite Ranger he had never been confined to Kanto and Johto. He knew Professor Birch on a professional level and hoped that he could crash at the Professor’s house prior to moving on towards Petalburg City. “Almost there Pidgeot, please go ahead and land us over there in that field towards your right.” Ash gestured to a field that was fairly clear of trees and shrubs that would put him just a little outside of Littleroot. He did not want to make a huge entrance, especially with how small the town was he did not need word of a new trainer’s arrival by an oversized Pidgeot spreading far and wide.

Pidgeot flapped its wings creating powerful gusts into the clearing as it gently touched down on a clear patch of the field. After Pidgeot lowered itself closer to the ground, Ash hopped off of the giant bird. He withdrew Pidgeot’s pokeball and pointed it towards the giant bird. “Return Pidgeot and take a nice long rest.” Pidgeot disappeared into a beam of light before her pokeball clicked shut.

Pikachu finally decided to wake up from his nap and crawled out of the top of Ash’s back pack before yawning. “Piiiiiii…” Pikachu rubbed its eyes with his paws momentarily before taking up his normal position on Ash’s shoulder.

“You said it Pikachu. Let’s get down to Littleroot and see if Professor Birch is around. I don’t fancy a night outside.” Absentmindedly rubbing Pikachu’s head, Ash turned towards the direction of Littleroot town and started towards the town. Right before he was about to take off Ash heard laughter coming from the trees of to his right.

“Prepare for trouble!” Jessie shouted as she burst out of the tree line looking worse for the wear. Her hair a tangled mess and her white Team Rocket uniform was scuffed up with dirt and grass stains.

Ash turned towards the tree line with an exasperated sigh ‘Just what I need…a visit from the fantastic duo.’ He thought as Pikachu mirrored Ash’s face.

Jessie stood there awkwardly…looking at Ash with a confused expression before turning back toward the tree line. Jessie whisper shouted at her companion. “James! Get out here! He is here!”

James finally stumbled out of the tree line not looking much better than Jessie…in fact the dark bags under his eyes that Ash could easily make out even from 500 feet made him appear worse. James yawned deeply while speaking. “Yes and ahhh..make it double.” James yawned deeply again.

Jessie’s eye brow twitched briefly before her right hand came around in an open handed slap to the face. Ash watched with a cringe as James fell to the ground with a groan.

“Why do I bother!? If you are not going to participate in our entrance then why do it at all!” Jessie screamed at her partner. James had the common sense to look guilty prior to replying. “But Jessie…you made me stand watch for the past two nights in a row…I’m tired.” He whined while slowly pulling himself off the ground. All the while James eyed Jessie carefully for any further aggression.

Ash decided to step in before their bickering became full blown. Eyeing the Rocket agents Ash took a few steps towards them. Pikachu sat on Ash’s shoulder, his eyes wandering across the field and tree line while his ears continued to rotate in an attempt to pick up any sound or movement. “So what do I owe the pleasure of two of Rockets finest agents?” Ash chuckled softly while shoving his hands in his pockets.

Jessie huffed while crossing her arms over her chest. James on the other hand glanced around quickly counting on Pikachu to pick up on any other people or Pokemon in the area. “We have information for you.  Some news on Rocket’s movement in Hoenn, we heard through Red that you would be arriving here in Littleroot.”

This caught Ash’s interest and he started moving closer to the Rocket members until he was within arm’s reach of the pair. “Oh…what kind of information...?”

Jessie smiled before she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Oh you know…something you will find interesting. Of course my memory is a little hazy…” Jessie trailed off while sticking her hand out.

Ash looked over at James with an expression that said ‘Seriously?’ in return James just shrugged his shoulders before replying to Ash’s look. “She has been watching a lot of spy movies lately.”

“Right…anyway.” Ash slung his backpack off of one shoulder and reached his hand into the backpack. Unzipping a secret compartment, Ash reached in and grabbed an envelope provided to him by Red prior to leaving. He handed the plain envelope over to Jessie before shouldering his back pack. “I need to know what Rocket is up to and any information you have on what is occurring with Hoenn.”

Jessie was too busy ripping open the envelope to really pay attention to what Ash was asking. “Money money money! Oh look how crisp it is! Fresh bills! I can buy the finest dresses with this!”

“Jessie…when are you going to possibly have time to wear the dresses? We haven’t eaten in a week can’t we get some food first, please?” James was borderline whining over the situation.

James sighed in exasperation before speaking directly to Ash, ignoring Jessie in the back ground as she fantasized out loud about the dresses that their pay day would provide. “Nothing concrete unfortunately and worse I fear Butch and Cassidy may be having doubts about our allegiance to Team Rocket’s cause.”

Jessie looked up from counting the money briefly growling slightly. “Fucking bitch, just give me a reason James and I will end her.”

Ash and James glanced over to Jessie for a moment before James continued. “We are being cut out of important operations. As of now Team Rocket is too weak to go on by itself.” At this James smiled slightly…despite being one of the survivors of Cinnabar Island and witnessing the destruction Ash caused he could respect his once opponent’s skills. “There are two main powers here in Hoenn and they are vying for power. Rocket members are joining both but my contacts in both agencies are going dark.”

James and Ash stood in silence for a moment, both mulling over the information that James was providing to Ash. Ash finally noticed something…Meowth the talking pokemon did not appear to be anywhere nearby.  Normally by now the sarcastic little cat pokemon would have made some derogatory comment. “By the way where is Meowth…not that I miss his glowing personality but normally he is not too far from you two.”

“Gone.” Jessie glowered and stuffed the envelope in her pocket. “Cassidy had a special mission that she needed Meowth on…that was weeks ago though. We haven’t seen or heard from Meowth since and Cassidy has been rather tight lipped about it.”

Ash nodded slightly before looking over to James. “So anything more about these groups that are absorbing the remainder of Rocket?”

“Nothing much just that they call themselves Team Magma and Team Aqua respectively, that and there seems to be no love lost between the two. There have already been a number of skirmishes between the two and normally it happens at historical sites. I have no idea what they are looking for but it must be something important.” James spoke while once again doing a quick scan of the area, looking for anything out of place.

Ash shot a smile to both the Rocket members before scratching the back of his head. “Well guys thanks for the information. Keep your ears to the ground and if you can get in contact with me without risking your status I will be following the Hoenn Trainer’s gym route.” Ash’s face turned serious after a moment of reflection.

“If it gets too serious pull out and get to one of the safe houses in Hoenn. I’ll come to you once I get word from the league.” Ash continued.

“Don’t worry about us! We are masters of disguise and deception.” Jessie grinned and shot the two a thumbs up.

James for his part just sighed and nodded a little. “We may be the ones that normally cause the trouble but we are no strangers to getting out of a spot on the double.”

Shaking his head in mild amusement, Ash suddenly remembered about his own disguise and deception.  “Speaking of I am also undercover while I am here so I would appreciate some discrepancy if I am around anyone other than Brock.” At the end Ash flashed a smile before turning away from the two and started to head towards Littleroot Town.  Pikachu flashed the two Rocket Members a thumbs up from Ash’s shoulder while crying out a good bye. “Pi! Pika! Pi!”

James and Jessie just shared a look of confusion when Ash announced he was not here as a Ranger but shrugged it off. They stayed in the clearing for a moment watching Ash depart before fading back into the tree line.

A few minutes later a giant Meowth balloon slowly rose above the forest’s tree line and started to head away from Littleroot and Ash. Jessie had finally taken over the balloon’s propulsion system.

“Thanks Jessie.” James had curled up on the floor of the basket and had draped a blanket over himself.

Jessie smiled a little while staring off into the distance. “Let it not be said I am without mercy.”

At this point James had closed his eyes and found that he was drifting off into sleep. A small smile found its way to his face.

 

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Littleroot town –

 

The street lights were starting to come on just as Ash and Pikachu stepped onto the main road into the town. Overall it was a quiet little town with only a few houses and businesses.  Ash and Pikachu took in the little town that they had not been to in a few years. Overall the town had not changed much. In fact it almost completely mirrored his home town of Pallet. Ash deftly moved through the small groups of people on the street, he got a few curious looks from some of the citizens. A new face in town was always interesting and the fact that he had a Pikachu riding on his shoulder made it doubly so.

Cursing a little bit under his breath, Ash hurried up and started heading towards the Lab of Professor Birch. Perhaps taking the main road was not the best call but it beat skirting around the town and possibly being thought of as an intruder by the town watch. Come to think of it…he had gotten rather lucky the whole trip here. He had not run into any wild pokemon, not that he was complaining but normally he had to fight off or kill a few anytime he was traveling between towns.

Ash continued to walk through the town and before he knew it he found himself at the door to the lab of Professor Birch.  Raising his hand to knock on the door, Ash almost fell back in surprise when the door opened right before he could bring his hand down to knock. Ash could not make out the figure due to the light coming through behind the person at the door.

“Ash…Ash Ketchum is that you?” A confused voice queried from the doorway, Professor Birch slowly moved out of the light. Ash was able to identify the Professor even after a few years bring away, the man still had no sense of style. Really who in their right mind found cargo shorts and a lab coat with sandals to boot as a viable and professional work wear option?

Ash laughed nervously while scratching the back of his head. “Hey Professor, long time no see. Would you mind if I come in?”

“Pi! Pikachu!” Pikachu greeted the professor with excitement; the little electric rodent waved one of its hands in greeting to the Professor.

“Haha…yes Pikachu it is great to see you as well. I hope you have been well.” The Professor smiled as he ushered both of the weary travelers into the lab.

Once both were inside, Professor Birch quietly closed the door behind them before locking the door. He turned to Ash taking a moment to survey the young man he had not seen in person in well over three years. “So Ash! What brings you back to Hoenn region? I would think you would be busy back in Kanto with all the clean up after pushing Team Rocket out.”

Ash shook his head before smiling at the Professor. “Well Professor that is why I am here actually.”

“Oh? Trouble all the way in Hoenn?” The professor adopted a pensive expression as he led Ash into one of the smaller side labs where they could talk in private.

Following along behind the Professor, Ash was internally debating about how much he wanted to tell Birch about the mission. After a moment Ash figured Professor Birch could both be trusted and being that this could become a dangerous situation it would be irresponsible not to tell him. “Nothing concrete but Red tracked some of the remaining Rocket Admins to Hoenn. A few of our sources have reported Rocket is regrouping here.”

Ash took a moment to sit down in the small lab. The Professor took a seat at the lone work station. He hummed to himself momentarily before addressing the younger man again. “Well unfortunately I do not have any information on Rocket. I have heard some rumblings here or there of two new groups. Team Magma and Team Aqua but unfortunately I do not get out much so I haven’t seen any problems myself.”

Both men took a moment to ponder on the issue before Ash spoke again. “Well anyway I am here to find out if anything is going on that Kanto needs to worry about. I am just here as Ash Ketchum a moderately decent trainer.” He finished with a self-deprecating grin.

Even Professor Birch had to laugh at that. “Of course I will believe that! Lucky for you no one really knows you in this region.” Birch’s smile disappeared as he considered his next words. “Well…I should say the general public only knows some rumors about what happened at Cinnabar.” He patted the younger man on the shoulder in an attempt at comfort.

Ash’s smile also disappeared, he never enjoyed reliving that day in anyway. It would be nice in a way that Hoenn did not really know of him in any substantial way. He could just blend in and be Ash. Trying to put up another smile he continued with his point. “Well Professor I will be heading out to Petalburg City tomorrow. I figure I will cut through Oldale Town on my way. If you could provide a room tonight it would be appreciated.”

The Professor smiled. “Of course Ash, I can set you up in the guest bedroom!” He paused for a moment before his smile turned into a grin. “Though…if you don’t mind I have a favor to ask.”

Ash’s face grew visibly nervous. With the accident prone and act first professor, a favor, could be a scary thing indeed. “S..Sure…Professor…what can I do?” Even Pikachu’s face looked nervous as both remembered the Professor’s last “favor” that landed the pair returning a lost Aron to it’s parent. That of course led them to facing off against two angry Aggrons.

Professor Birch must have noticed their faces as he laughed. “Nothing too bad I promise! I just have a package I need delivered to Petalburg Gym! The gym leader’s daughter was going to come down here to pick it up but I figure since you are here…”

Both Ash and Pikachu looked visibly relieved as they both sighed. Ash then threw the professor a smile. “Of course Professor…but Professor what about the gym leader’s daughter?”

Professor Birch got up and started leading them out of the lab and towards the house portion of the lab and up to the guest room. “Well she left this morning…she is probably in Oldale tonight. As long as you leave early in the morning you should be able to intercept her!”

Ash nodded before bidding the Professor a good night. He just managed to kick off his shoes before collapsing in the bed. After the long journey he passed out before even eating anything since lunch yesterday. Right before he fell asleep he hoped that the Professor had a large breakfast ready for him in the morning.

 

 

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Petalberg City – earlier that day

“May! If you are going to get to Littleroot by tomorrow afternoon you are going to have to get a move on missy!”

May groaned as she pulled herself out of her nice warm bed. The brunette had taken a “short” cat nap after breakfast to recharge her energy prior to leaving for Littleroot. The cat nap had turned into a 4 hour mini coma. “Just wrapping up packing Mom!”

“Of course sweetie!” Her mother called up the stairs in between giggles.

May just grumbled before she hurriedly threw a few things into a bag that she needed for the trip. She took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. May then spun around to observe her outfit from all angles. She wore a red polo shirt and a pair of black bike shorts. She threw on her backpack and tied her red bandana on over her hair. After taking one last look she made sure to clip her pokeballs to the magnetic belt around her waist.

When she appeared downstairs she waved a friendly good afternoon to both her parents before she sat down at the table. Like a ravenous growlithe she tore into the food her mother had left out for her. Both parents laughed in amusement as her brother Max slowly edged away and out of reach.

“Take a breath May…geez.” Max grumbled before he started fiddling with his pokedex. He was home taking a few weeks off from traveling before he restarted his journey. At the time he only had three pokeballs around his waist but he wasn’t too concerned he had only started recently.

May threw a glare towards her brother before she finished up…leaving a table missing half its contents. “Shut it brat or you are dead!”

“May you better hurry up if you want to get to Oldale before it gets dark.” Norman reminded his daughter.

“Hey you are using your only daughter as free delivery service.” May muttered while crossing her arms. “I don’t think you have any right to complain.”

“That is the advantages of being the parent.” Norman laughed aloud before taking a big scoop of cream cheese and liberally applying it to his bagel.

“You know for being so concerned about my welfare you don’t seem to have an issue sending me on these little trips all the time.” May grumbled. “Why is it alright for me to go to Littleroot alone but traveling alone is just out of the question?”

“May there is a huge difference between traveling in our little corner of Hoenn and you traveling throughout Hoenn alone.” Norman was already preparing for a fight. In fact every time he sent May on an errand it always turned into a fight. “I have told you before and I will tell you again. It just isn’t safe for you to travel alone fully trained pokemon or not!”

“Yet you allow Max to travel as he pleases without so much as a “be careful son” this is blatant sexism!” May growled and pointed at her brother. “How come I was allowed to travel on my journey when I was younger and yet now it is no longer OK?”

“Hey don’t bring me into this.” Max muttered as he edged away from his sister who was dangerously close to exploding.

“May you know the reasons and yes it is because you are a girl but young female trainers that are traveling alone have been disappearing lately. I refuse to let my daughter become a statistic.” Norman as always would not budge on the issue. “They are being kidnapped while camping out on the road. There is no way you can avoid sleeping outside during a second pokemon journey.”

“Mom!” May turned to her mother hoping to find some sympathy from her. “Can you please tell Dad he is being a stubborn jerk!”

“Young lady that is no way to talk about your parents whether you agree with their decisions or not. I happen to agree with your father on this even if I have some reservations.” Caroline shot her daughter a sympathetic look before catching a look at the clock. Seeing the time, Caroline decided to hurry her daughter out the door. “Better hurry up dear! You are wasting daylight.”

“Thanks for the food mom! I will call you when I get to Oldale!” With that May rushed towards the door shooting her mother a smile before disappearing through the door.

“Be careful!” Norman yelled out the door before sighing in exasperation. He always worried about his daughter. She had never been completely together in the safety department. He also secretly worried about her safety since he knew she concentrated more on contest moves now than actual battling.

Caroline smiled at her husband and instantly read his face. “Dear, May has been traveling alone for the past six years. I think that she can handle herself.” She kissed her husband on the cheek not paying attention to their son as Max made gagging sounds.

“I know…I know I just worry…sometimes that girl has her head in the clouds.” Norman shook his head once again debating the decision to send her off for the package from Professor Birch.

 

 

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-Between Petalburg and Oldale.

May sighed in boredom as she walked along the route towards Oldale. The path was completely deserted which was not a huge surprise since Oldale was not exactly a prime travel location. More for companionship than protection May threw out a pokeball. “Blaziken! Go!” The tall human shaped bird pokemon appeared in a beam of red light. Immediately it surveyed the area for any danger to it’s master.

“Calm down Blaziken! I just needed some companionship.” The girl smiled before lightly punching the pokemon’s shoulder. Blaziken nodded before it fell in step next to it’s trainer. The pokemon kept an ever vigilant watch over the area.

They continued for some time until Oldale came into view ahead of them. May sighed with relief…not only had she not run into any trouble…mostly due to Blaziken’s intimidating presence but the sun was just setting.

May hurried along towards the pokemon center with Blaziken trailing behind. Within minutes she had gotten her room for the night and ended up having a large meal at the center prior to going to bed early in hopes to hit the road early. If she actually stuck to schedule she could probably get back to Petalburg tomorrow night if she pushed on all day.

 

 

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Littleroot town – Next Morning.

 

Ash woke up with a groan. After flying all day yesterday his muscles protested his every movement. Taking a moment to stretch himself out he slowly picked himself out of bed. The moment he did however his stomach started to gurgle.

Taking only a moment to change out his clothing for a fresh pair he hurried down the stairs already smelling breakfast. The electric rodent was not far behind Ash in the quest for food.

When Ash came into the kitchen he saw a feast laid out in front of him. Birch’s wife Ana stood by the stove smiling at Ash’s face when he skidded to a halt inside the kitchen. “Good Morning Ash…my husband said you arrived last night right after dinner. I knew you would be starving if you did not have dinner last night.” She finished with a laugh.

Ash could only nod as he fell upon the food much like a certain Brunette had done the day before at her residence. Ana could only look on in amusement as the young man ate as if he had been starved for weeks.

Birch appeared in the doorway with a small package wrapped up in brown paper just as Ash had finished. He smiled before dropping the package in front of Ash. “Much appreciated Ash! Looks like you enjoyed breakfast.”

Ash could only nod as he finished up the remaining food on his plate before sending a disarming smile to Ana. “Thank you Mrs. Birch! I haven’t eaten this well since...umm well a really long time.” Ash trailed off a little at the thought of his mother’s cooking.

Ana smiled before looking at her husband in an expectant matter, she then started pointing to the messy dishes strewn across the kitchen, the kitchen looked like a war zone. “Looks like it is your turn to do the dishes dear since I made the meal!”

Birch’s face fell into despair as he surveyed the damage done by Ash. It appeared that Ana had used the entire collection of pots and pans to cook up the feast for the young trainer. He turned to Ash laughing slightly. “Well looks like I am on kitchen duty. I am sure you can find your way out?”

Ash could only snicker over the Professor’s unintended predicament before nodding to the professor.  “Of course Professor…thanks again for the room and the information…I will contact you if I find anything else out.” His face turned somber for a moment before a gigawatt smile returned as he faced Ana. “And thank you Mrs. Birch! The meal really helped fuel us up for our adventure!”

“Pi Pika!” Pikachu agreed from the floor before hopping onto his trainer’s shoulder.

Ana smiled at both of the guests before she turned towards the front door and started to lead Ash and Pikachu out of the lab, both travelers following her. “Well thanks Ash, I am always happy to cook for you two! My husband never fully appreciates my cooking like you.”

With that Ash left the lab and Littleroot town behind as he headed towards Oldale town. He waved over his shoulder one last time before disappearing across the horizon.

 

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Somewhere outside Oldale Town – Next Morning

 

May groaned as she walked down another path hoping to see some semblance of civilization. “How did I manage to get myself lost?!” She groaned as once again she took what looked to be a correct path. Despite running so many errands for her father she rarely went to Littleroot. Instead of taking the main path she had wandered onto an off shoot. By the time she had realized her error and tried to course correct May had ended up deeper in the woods. At this point she was starting to get skived out and just wanted to see some sign of human life.

Up ahead she suddenly heard human voices. “Alright! Perhaps they can point me on the right path.” The brunette muttered to herself in relief. Not even stopping to survey the scene May burst out of the thin copse of trees separating her from the human voices. “Hi! I am totally lost can you point me towards…” Her voice petered off as she surveyed the scene.

It appeared to be an excavation project that was currently underway. Giant stone tablets that were still partially covered in dirt were currently being excavated. May unfortunately found that no one answered her call in fact it appeared as if the dig site was abandoned.

Wandering further into the dig site, May came closer to the giant stone tablets. There was writing on the tablets but nothing that May could translate. ‘So strange I thought there were people here a minute ago and who in the world would be digging out in the middle of nowhere with no warnings up about a dig in progress.’

Inspecting the tablets a little further, May found some pictures engraved into a few of the tabletsl. Strange really as the tablets depicted a giant salamander looking pokemon holding a glowing orb of some sort. The next tablet seemed to depict the salamander pokemon moving the earth. Shaking her head, May ceased looking at the picture.

Catching sight of a trailer, May made her way over hoping to find someone there that could help. A quick knock on the door yielded no answer. “Helllloooooo Hello anyone there! I am kinda lost and could use some help here!”

Sighing in frustration, May decided to just chance it and opened the door. Inside she found a few desks with papers all across the office. Never let it be said that May Maple was a snooper…but she was interested in who was digging here.

What May found surprised her and frightened her. Instead of finding boring office materials that May would have cared less about instead she found things that disturbed her. At first she didn’t believe it but there had been a hit list laying on one of the desks. Even worse there were notes attached and people crossed out including one of the Officer Jenny’s. It appeared that Jenny had gotten too close to their operations and had paid the price. In fact May remembered seeing the mysterious death in the news a few weeks ago.

What disturbed her more was the pictures of the missing girls…all with prices attached to their pictures? Whoever these people were they were the ones picking up young female trainers and selling them from the looks of it. May’s eyes widened when she finally put everything together. Officer Jenny had gotten a lead on the missing girls and when these people had found out she was getting close they started by killing her and everyone else she must have told.

“Oh shit…I gotta get out of here…oh shit shit shit.” May managed to pick up the information but her arms felt like lead. Her adrenaline was already pumping throughout her body. Stepping out of the small trailer she felt her back bump into something soft. Looking behind her she found herself staring at a man dressed in a black and red uniform.

“Wha?” The man stared at May before his eyes connected with the piece of paper the young girl had in her hands. Blaise’s eyes widened when he realized what she had before he dropped into an easy going smile. “Calm down Miss…now I am going to have to ask you to hand that over. It is a very important piece of paper and I think you will find you are jumping to conclusions.”

May just stared in horror for a moment before her adrenaline finally kicked in. Ducking under the man, May managed to avoid his last minute grab before making a run back towards the woods.

May blew by two Onix burrowing into the ground with their tails and a mass of Gravelers digging out the holes that the Onix were creating. Surrounding the pokemon was close to 15 people dressed in the same weird red and black garb as the man by the trailer. To make it worse she noticed a rather large pack of Houndoom patrolling the area just out of her position.

The members of Team Magma stared in surprise for a moment as the young woman blew by them seeming to come from deeper in the camp. They were knocked out of their stupor by Blaise. The admin was running after the girl. “Get her you idiots! Kill her god fucking dammit! Do not let her reach the main path”  

The remaining Magma members got in gear and quickly ordered the Houndoom into action. “Houndoom! Intercept and ravage!” The Houndoom converged together into a pack before pursuing the young girl. Howling in anticipation of the kill the dark fire dogs were more than happy to tear this tasty morsel apart.  

May just had enough time to see over 12 Houndoom approaching her at a rapid pace. Knowing that not even her pokemon could handle that many at once she followed her only option. That of course was for her to continue running. May plunged into the tree line running head first crashing through underbrush without a second thought. ‘I am going to die.’ This was the only thought running through her head as she kept pushing herself forward. Behind her she could hear the Houndoom catching up to her. Further back she could hear the Team Magma members yelling out orders but she could not make it out.  

She finally crashed through the tree line and landed on the main path. The sudden change from the spongy forest ground to the hard packed down dirt of the main road caused her to lose her balance. She fell into a tumble and landed on her back staring up at the sky. She groaned for a moment before she pulled herself back up. The moment she pushed herself off her back she stopped before her the Houndoom had caught up to her and were advancing quickly. The started to enclose her in a half circle, blocking her ability to move left or right. In another moment she knew the pack would surround her completely. ‘Not good not good.’ She thought in her head.

May’s left hand slowly moved towards one of her pokeballs…her Venasaur…if she could release her pokemon she could at least take a few down with her before one got through Venasaur’s defenses. A deep growl from one of the Houndoom stopped her in her tracks. She did the only thing she could at this point. “Somebody help me!” She screamed out hoping against hope someone would hear her.

The Houndoom paused for a moment as if they too were worried that her scream would draw unwanted attention. After a moment they came to the consensus that no one would be appearing last minute. The lead Houndoom jumped in the air towards the young girl ready to end her life by tearing her throat out.

 

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Route 101 – in between Littleroot and Oldale

Looking up he could see Pidgeot up high above acting at their scout. Deploying the bird was a normal tactic that he had used during the Rocket Wars. It was especially useful to use the bird as a surprise attack that Rocket members rarely expected. Pidgeot being fully evolved could go much higher than most of the pokemon that Rocket ever fielded.

Ash groaned as he continued to trudge onwards. He really needed to invest in a bike either that or get a less obvious flying pokemon to ferry him around. The argument against flying though was that he would potentially gain too much attention if he just went around flying everywhere.

‘I suppose I could use Arcanine but he probably would not appreciate being used as a taxi service.’ He grumbled in his head about the proud lion dog pokemon. In fact knowing his luck Arcanine would dump him off somewhere in a river in response to using him as transportation. Ash briefly pondered why it was that all of his fire pokemon were proud assholes that felt the need to just do as they pleased without any regards for his feelings. Pikachu kept alert on his shoulder, his ears constantly swiveling around looking for some kind of danger.

“I think I need to get in better shape Pikachu…I don’t think I have walked this much in months.” Pikachu took a moment away from his trainer before nodding and pointing towards Ash’s stomach. “Piiiiika…Pi.”

Ash glared at the little electric rodent. “Are you calling me fat!”

“Piiika! Pi! Pikachuuuu.” The little rodent responded with a grin and a shrug of its little shoulders.

“Well if you think I am so out of shape I believe your ketchup rations may be cut off soon.” Ash ended with a smirk. He knew it was a low blow but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Piiiiiiiiiiiiii!” Pikachu’s face registered shock before he almost fell off of Ash’s shoulder.

Ash was about to respond when he suddenly saw a bright beam of yellow rake the earth below from far above in the sky. Looking up he saw that it came from Pidgeot. “What the fuck is that god damn bird doing?” Growling in anger, Ash took off in a run to see what in the hell his bird was attacking. Knowing his luck the damn bird had seen some pokemon on the ground using her keen eye that had looked at her wrong.  

Ash started running further up the path and as he came up over the ridge he immediately saw a girl on the ground surrounded by a pack of Houndoom. There was a smoking line from Pidgeot’s hyper beam but it had clearly missed its mark as he saw no downed pokemon.

Immediately he threw forth a pokeball as he continued to run closer to the action. He knew only one pokemon could get there in time to make a difference. “Arcanine! On deck!” The giant lion dog appeared before letting a mighty roar to announce his arrival.

Just as Arcanine formed, Ash saw the lead Houndoom leaping into the air ready to rip the young girl’s throat out. “Arcanine extreme speed! Intercept that Houndoom!” In a blinding flash of light Arcanine took off like a rocket towards the fight ahead.

 

/\  /\

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May knew it was all over the moment the Houndoom leapt towards her…she closed her eyes in preparation for her end. Right as she felt a shadow over her she all of a sudden heard a surprised yelp. Opening her eyes she saw a giant Arcanine in front of her. In between its powerful jaws it held the Houndoom which was struggling in an attempt to get free. This ended a moment later when the Arcanine chomped down with its powerful jaws. The Houndoom fell out of Arcanine’s mouth in pieces. Dark blood ran down Arcanine’s muzzle as it stomped one of its heavy front paws down on the eviscerated Houndoom’s upper body ending its life completely.

“Oh thank heavens…” May blew out her breath momentarily…that was until she realized that now the remaining Houndoom had regrouped and started to surround the larger pokemon. The Arcanine for his credit glared at the smaller pokemon like they were a blight upon this earth. His baleful glare turning to any Houndoom that started to come any closer.

Ash witnessed Arcanine’s total destruction of the lead Houndoom with a smirk. ‘That should really set the tone for the Houndoom. Once he was in range for Lucario to enter the fight he threw it forwards.

“Lucario back up Arcanine.”

“Cario!” The jackal pokemon acknowledged Ash’s command before the fighting type ran ahead to back up the giant lion dog.  

Lucario came up next to Arcanine who despite the advantage of power was having a hard time keeping the Houndoom corralled in one area. The Houndoom kept trying to flank the large fire dog lion. “Doom” One of the Houndoom growled before the Houndoom reigned fire down upon Arcanine and Lucario.

“Lucario block it metal sound!” Lucario acknowledged the order before he opened his mouth before emitting a metal screech at the incoming flames. The flames were disrupted by the air waves and were snuffed out before reaching Lucario.

Arcanine on the other hand took the flames and immediately fire seemed to seep out of his fur in response. If anything Arcanine looked annoyed at the flames that were lapping around him but most just slid off his skin without affecting the giant lion dog.

Ash grinned as Arcanine’s blaze was activated. “Alright show them a real flame thrower!” Ash briefly watched as Arcanine drew in a large breath of air before spewing forth a solid stream of fire towards the pack of Houndoom. The fire did not do much damage but it did intimidate the Houndoom quite effectively due to the ferocity of the flames. Ash turned his attention completely to Lucario trusting that Arcanine could continue the fight without much more direction. “Alright Lucario extreme speed into the middle of the pack…set off a wide radius aura sphere and follow it up with a close combat strike!”

While Arcanine kept the pack as a whole busy Lucario blew into the middle of the pack in a burst of speed while charging his aura sphere. The Houndoom were just reacting to the first attack when the blue jackal pokemon let loose the pulse of aura sphere that spread out from the epicenter in all directions. The super effective attack blew the Houndoom back. Lucario followed this up by coming in close to one of the Houndoom that took the most damage. With a quick jab he drove the spikes on the back of both hands into the Houndoom’s chest. The fire dog let out a gurgle as blood started to fill it’s lungs. Lucario withdrew back to Arcanine’s side before the Houndoom could respond with a wall of fire that hit the spot Lucario was standing in a moment ago.

May finally pulled herself out of her own stupor from the near death experience. She pulled herself off the ground while looking at her savior. She was amazed at the calm and collected manner the young man was dealing with this fight. Taking a moment to survey the scene she saw that young trainer’s pokemon had killed two of the Houndoom so far and heavily damaged the remaining eleven. Still it was a eleven on two fight and no matter what the level the Arcanine and Lucario could not keep up dodging or just taking the hits forever.

Making up her mind she threw out two pokeballs and out came Wartortle and Glaceon. The moment they appeared before their trainer they were shocked by the scene before them. They were startled out of their stupor by May’s command. “Wartortle back up Arcanine and Lucario! Hit any of those Houndoom you can with Water gun!” Wartortle grunted in acknowledgement before it started picking out targets per May’s orders and hitting them with blasts of water from its mouth.

“Now Glaceon start off with icy wind!” A chill wind blew across the battlefield causing most of the Houndoom to shiver slightly as they felt sluggish despite their being a fire type. “Now start picking out targets and hit them from afar with Ice shard!” With that Glaceon mirrored Wartortle’s attack pattern and started to try and pick off Houndoom that strayed too far around the flanks of Arcanine and Lucario.

“Thanks for the assistance, this will make life easier.” Ash smiled towards the girl who seemed to be up and no longer stunned by her near death experience. “Alright Pikachu let’s give them a helping hand!” The small electric type was excited to battle and quickly bounded off of his trainer’s shoulder towards the fray. “Now while the Houndoom are corralled! Thunder Struck!”

“Pika Pika Pika CHU!” The small electric type let loose two jagged bolts of lightning that shot up into the air. A moment later two giant columns of lightning crashed down on either side of the group of Houndoom. The attack created a concussive blast that knocked the outlying Houndoom off their feet while the Houndoom closer to the middle of the group were left disoriented.

Ash surveyed the battlefield with the addition of May’s pokemon the tide began to swing the other way with the Houndoom confused or knocked off their feet. Glaceon just decapitated one of the remaining Houndoom with a large shard of ice.  While Arcanine tore into a Houndoom with its jaws and held down another one with one of its enormous paws while ignoring the other Houndoom’s flame thrower attacks. Lucario had finished off another Houndoom by stabbing it through the throat with one of its hand spikes.

“Alright Lucario finish the rest off with another aura sphere across the entire area. Arcanine finish it up with a flame charge. Leave no survivors!” Ash yelled out to his pokemon. Despite both pokemon’s power he knew they both could not go on forever.

Lucario blasted the remaining Houndoom off their collective feet with another super effective attack and before they could recover Arcanine started it’s attack. The few Houndoom left alive were immediately trampled to death under the heavy feet of Arcanine as it ran through the downed dog pokemon. Arcanine finished off one of the last remaining Houndoom with its giant paw crushing the wind pipe of a piteous Houndoom making whimpers of pain.

After Ash was satisfied that none of the Houndoom remaining still drew breath he quickly recalled Gardevoir, Lucario and Arcanine. “Take a long rest guys.” He sagged with exhaustion from the stress of the battle. Pikachu still sat on his shoulder surveying the region for any further trouble.

“There they are!” The two teens turned when they heard a voice yell out from the woods. A moment later a group of men and women dressed in some odd garb appeared out of the tree line.

“Some friends of yours?” Ash commented in annoyance. He had figured there had to be trainers attached to this group of Houndoom but he had hoped that it was a wild pack.

“We need to get out of here!” May’s eyes lit up in fear upon seeing the Magma members again.

“No problem.” Ash waved his arm above his head. “Pidgeot I need an extraction now!” Yelling aloud so the giant bird could hear, Ash turned to May and wrapped his free arm around her waist which caused the young girl to blush. Pikachu rapidly climbed up Ash’s shoulder and held tight to the trainer’s vest. “Hold on tight!”

Before Team Magma had any chance to send forth any new pokemon, Pidgeot swept down from the wild blue yonder and Ash grabbed the bird’s leg with one hand. The pair were yanked off the ground and into the sky. Holding tight to Pidgeot’s leg, Ash yelled over the wind.  “Ash Ketchum…at your service, I hope you are alright?”

May’s breath hitched slightly as she attempted to recover from the sudden extraction. “May…my name is May Maple.”

Ash smiled…so this was the girl that was originally supposed to pick up the package from Professor Birch. “Well that works out well! I actually just came from Professor Birch’s lab. He gave me this package to drop off to the Petalburg gym leader.”

“Thank you…well that saves me a trip to Littleroot Town. Those people are crazy! I need to get to the police or someone they have been kidnapping female trainers and killing people. I managed to grab some paperwork.” May yelled over the wind so she could be heard.

Ash surveyed the young girl for a moment before Pikachu responded for him. “Pika! Pikachu! Pi!” The yellow electric rodent excitedly before giving her a thumbs up.

“Let’s get you to Oldale and we will make a report.” The Kanto trainer stared back down at the Team Magma trainers below. Locking eyes with the last Magma trainer to appear, Ash committed the man’s face to memory. His gut told him the man was important and Ash had learned to trust his gut over the years.

Blaise stared back at the trainer that had suddenly interceded with suppressed rage just boiling below the surface. Like Ash, Blaise to committed the man’s face to memory. The duo may have eluded him today but he would hunt them down.

 

 

A/N: Hopefully this makes a little more sense for everyone involved and gives Team Magma something of a sinister back round since I already kinda got Aqua doing some terrible things in later chapters.

 


	3. Petalburg Hustle

A/N: Once more some housekeeping and expanding the story in parts I think were missed.

Chapter 3 – Petalburg Hustle

 

Oldale Town -

Ash surveyed the town of Oldale that they were coming up on. “Pidgeot! Put us down near the edge of town!” Once again Ash had to yell to be heard above the wind.

“Eot!” The giant bird pokemon acknowledged her trainer before starting to circle around her landing spot. Once more she started to beat her wings rapidly to slow her descent ever mindful of her passengers still attached to her leg.

May was feeling a little queasy from the ride and was visibly green around the gills so to speak. The only thing that kept her from falling over in a heap happened to be Ash’s arm. “I don’t feel so good.”

“Heh…yeah Pidgeot will do that to ya!” Laughing nervously over his bird’s antics, Ash recalled Pidgeot with his free hand. Once Ash was reasonably sure that May had recovered from the high speed transportation that was Pidgeot he released his hold on her waist.

 “So…not to get too personal but do you normally run into strangers with a terrible fashion sense that are out to kill you or is this a recent occurrence?” Ash tried to diffuse the situation by sending the girl a disarming grin and putting his hands behind his head. Pikachu just sighed at his trainer’s less than swift attempt to change the mood.

May shook herself out of her thoughts before looking at the young man that saved her. She forced a smile onto her face. “Well…normally no. I found a dig site out in the middle of the forest which was strange. I kinda may have gone into their trailer and look I found this!” May produced the hit list with the notes written across it and the information on the missing girls. “The girls listed on here are the ones that have been kidnapped. Their posters have been everywhere the past few months!”

Nodding once Ash took a look over the papers that May had produced. Not even two days into his mission and he had already run right into the cause of the rumored disappearances that Red had informed him of. “May this is too big for the police force in Oakdale Town to handle on their own. If they were to respond those goons would wipe out anything Oakdale could field. I’ll make a call to the League when we get to the pokemon center and provide them all the information.”

May nodded before she started heading into Oakdale towards the pokemon center. “Do you think the League will be able to respond in time?”

Shaking his head, Ash indicated the unlikelihood of that being the case. “Probably not. Only if Oakdale responded immediately would they have a chance of catching them but Oakdale would be wiped out in the process. The best we can hope for is that those guys are sloppy and leave enough evidence for the League to look into it further.”

“Geez…not great options.” May commented in a dejected voice. Shoving her hands in her pockets, May cast a glance at the man next to her. The pair had fallen into silence and May did not really deal well with silence. “So…” May started out awkwardly, noticing Ash’s head jerked up. She had probably startled him out of thought but she did not particularly care she just wanted conversation to fill the dead space. “What brings you to Hoenn? And how exactly do you know Professor Birch, he just doesn’t give packages to a random guy going to Petalburg! On top of that where did you get those Pokemon I don’t recognize any of them! And what is with the knowledge of who to report this to! Do you work for the League?” She was cut off by laughter which caused her to glare at the trainer. She was disappointed it just caused him to laugh harder.

Grinning at the girl, Ash shook himself out of his thoughts before laughing again. Never in all of his life had he run into a girl that could talk that much. “Calm down May. I will answer all your questions…just give me a minute.” He waved his arms in a downwards motion attempting to placate the energetic girl. “I am from Kanto, I am here to challenge the Hoenn league so I need to visit the gyms, I have visited or traveled across most of the regions so all my pokemon are from different areas, and I am friends with Professor Birch on a professional level.”

May nodded slightly as she listened to his answers. All and all they made sense to her…then she paused for a moment in her thoughts. Nodding in acceptance regarding Ash’s answers, May never even noticed that Ash had ignored her question regarding League employment. A smile slid across May’s face when she realized that the young man may just be her solution to her little traveling problem.

The sudden smile caused Ash and Pikachu to share a concerned look. “Uh…May….” The dark haired trainer ventured. “Why the sudden smile?”

“Hmm…so Ash…since you are planning on getting all the gym badges, you will be traveling right…..” She left the sentence hanging for a moment awaiting his confirmation.

  
Nodding a little, Ash turned to Pikachu who simply shrugged. “Well yeah…”

“Then you can travel with me!” May practically yelled in excitement before flashing a million watt smile at the young man.

“Er…” “Pikaaaaaaa” Ash and Pikachu did a double take at her before Ash spoke up. “Don’t you mean you would be traveling with me?” He said questioned while jerking his thumb at himself and Pikachu.

May laughed slightly at her slight mix up in wording before getting back on task. ‘If I get him to agree perhaps Dad will finally let me travel away from the area. There is no way after that fight that I would be in any kind of danger with him around besides the League should be able to clean up those creeps with the information I swiped.’ She practically jumped up and down with excitement. “Yes! Exactly! If you let me travel with you not only do you get all the inside tips on the gym leaders but I will even throw in the chance to see me compete in Pokemon competitions!”

He could have sworn he saw her eyes go all starry by the time she finished her rambling proposal. He glanced again at Pikachu but Pikachu continued to stand straight on his shoulder not even acknowledging the conversation. “Traitor.” He muttered so only Pikachu could hear him. The little electric rodent only twitched his one ear in acknowledgement.

Sighing Ash turned to May who seemed to be watching his every move awaiting his answer. He mulled it over for a moment in his head. ‘On one hand it may throw off the people I am investigating and provide a more plausible cover. On the other hand I am putting this girl in danger and seriously how Pokemon competitions are a plus is beyond me.’ He shook his head before looking at the expectant May.

“No.” Ash said before resolutely staring ahead and not in any way looking towards May.

May looked at Ash in shock for a moment. ‘No? No? That can’t be right! I need him or else I can’t travel to the cities and the competitions. If I can’t get to the real competitions then I will rot away in Petalburg…or worse take over the gym from Dad!’ The last thought was followed by a shudder.

Ash noticed that May’s eyes hardened when he took a quick glance over. ‘Oh yeah that is not good.’ He thought while trying to ignore the girl. Up ahead he thought he could make out the Pokemon Center’s red roof.

Unfortunately for Ash looking ahead did not assist him. “Ash…I need to travel with you! My dad will not let me travel without a companion and the only person available is Drew and he is kinda an asshole. Do you want to leave me traveling with an asshole?” May questioned Ash with a dangerous glare…just daring him to contradict her statement.

“Well…no…” He ventured mostly against his will.

May flashed him a smile. “See I knew you would see it my way! It is settled when we get into Petalburg you will come meet my father and tell him that you will personally see to my safety during my travels. He is a little overprotective is all, I won’t be a burden at all.” Her smile turned in a slightly frightening grin as she looked towards Ash. “If you don’t agree I will just follow you and if I get hurt my father will not be happy.”

Ash scratched the back of his head while laughing off May’s threatening tone at the end. ‘How do I get myself into these situations…if Lance knew half the shit I got myself into I would never hear the end of it.’ He could not really think of a way out of this that would not end up with either an angry May or her father trying to kill him.

“Well…I guess welcome aboard May.” He said in a tentative voice.

“Pika! Pi Pikachu!” Pikachu was much more enthusiastic with his acceptance. Finally coming out of his practically stone state the little yellow traitor jumped from Ash’s shoulder into May’s arms.

“Traitor.” Ash muttered under his breath for the second time today. Thank goodness they were coming up on the pokemon center. Grumbling a little in annoyance, Ash stepped through the automatic doors and entered the lobby.

May smiled before hugging the small yellow pokemon to her chest. “Well Pikachu I am glad you are with me on this!” She smiled at Ash before following him into the Pokemon center.

Ten minutes later Ash had left Arcanine, Lucario, and Pidgeot with Nurse Joy to rest up. They also got a double room that had two mini bedrooms and shared a small living room area. Ash was not exactly thrifty when it came to his Ranger account.

“Uh Nurse Joy is there a video phone here?” Ash queried.

Nurse Joy pointed towards the bank of video phones located just off the main lobby area. “Right over there Sir!”

“Thanks!” Ash smiled before heading towards the video phones. “May I am going to make a call to the League regarding what we ran into. I’ll meet you in the room.”

Once May disappeared from the main lobby and it appeared that Nurse Joy was otherwise occupied Ash slipped into the alcove that contained the video phones.

Dialing the number in by heart, Ash glanced to his left and right to make sure no one else was loitering in the area. Luckily for the Ranger no one appeared to be in the area. Impatiently waiting while the call connected through the secure League phone line network, Ash found that he was tapping his hand on the wooden edge of the desk the video phone was mounted on.

“Come on come on.”

“Hoenn Ranger coordination center please state your ID to verify you into the system.”

“Er…” Shit he had kinda removed himself from the system when he had resigned. “I uh…don’t have one…”

“Sir we require an ID for verification. Please call the main line in the future. This line is for Ranger and priority lines only.” The woman on the other end explained in a rather bored fashion.

“Yeah but this is kinda like really important.” Ash was attempting to stall the woman from disconnecting. Did he use the emergency number that Red had provided him if he ran into something important. ‘Fuck it, this is important.’ Ash interrupted the woman who was currently giving him grief over what constituted important. “Priority code 625789 Echo Flash.”

The woman’s eyes bugged out for a moment before she nodded. “Transferring you to the Ranger Rapid Response center now.”

 “Thanks.” Ash muttered as the screen went dark. A moment later a Ranger dispatcher appeared on screen.

“Ranger Rapid Response how can I help you.”

“I need a sweep and clear team to be dropped into the woods between Littleroot and Oldale Town. I encountered a group of criminals and came across proof that they have been behind the kidnapping of several missing female trainers. They also had materials that implicated their murder of various Hoenn police officials. I will upload the coordinates and documents now.” Ash pulled out the documents that May had pilfered from the group she ran into and uploaded them through the Vid phone system.

The Ranger apparently had not been expecting something quite so serious as his eyebrows rose high into his hairline. “Is this genuine?”

Shrugging a little, Ash nodded. “As far as I know I did not actually see it, I ran into a girl that was being chased and she had this on her from their trailer. They apparently had a dig site out there but if they have any sense they will pack up and get out of there after we escaped.”

“Noted, well thanks for the information. I will be deploying a sweep and clear team to see if they can pick anything up.” The Ranger was rapidly typing away at the computer. “I will call you with further information if I can. In the meantime I would recommend you stay alert as the group may seek retribution.”

“Right right I kinda figured as much.” After a few more questions and an exchange of information the call was concluded and Ash made his way back to the rented room.

 

 

/\  /\

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Route 101 – Team Magma

Blaise growled in annoyance over the outcome of what should have been a simple retrieval. How the hell had a young girl evaded his men. “Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck! How the hell did you idiots let this happen?” He questioned to no one in particular as he looked upon the dead Houndoom.

Pausing for a moment, Blaise went through the options in his head. In the end he knew that they had to get the fuck out of here. If those two teens had any sense they would make for Oldale and report what they had found to the League. “Clean this fucking mess up. We are abandoning the dig site. We got what we came for at this point anyway.”  

“Once we get through with the clean-up we are going to try and intercept them. There is no way they will stay in Oldale even after reporting their information to the League. The League will probably request that they make it to the nearest Ranger outpost which is in Petalburg City. If we travel through the night we can intercept her in between Oldale and Petalburg. “ Blaise directed his troops to cleaning up the dead Houndoom. The grunts used their Gravelers and Onix that had been used at the dig site to dispose of the dead bodies. The giant rock pokemon had no issues feeding on their dead allies. It was the most reliable way to dispose of any evidence of a fight.

 

/\  /\

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Oldale Town – Pokemon Center

 

“Night Ash!” May smiled before she headed towards her small room. She giggled slightly the moment she closed the door. If her Dad only knew that she was technically sharing a room with a cute boy he would probably have an aneurism over it. She quickly changed into her pajamas before slipping in under her covers and falling into a blissful sleep.

Ash nodded towards May’s departing figure before he went into his own room. Pikachu was already curled up on his pillow. He smiled slightly before stripping down to his boxers and also falling into his bed. The last few days had been kind of exhausting even with the full nights rest at Littleroot.

The moment he fell asleep Ash was tormented by his dreams of the past. He started to toss and turn slightly in his bed.

 

/\  /\

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_Ash looked around the area. The buildings were half torn down from the battles going on around him. Anything that was not already turned into rubble was on fire. In fact nothing left over on the streets was left untouched in some way. He could not believe a week ago he had landed on Cinnabar Island with Lance, Clair, a few gym leaders, Rangers, Trainers, and a squadron of Elite Rangers from the Kanto/Johto league._

_Blaine had sent out an emergency S.O.S. requesting back up. He had informed the league that an entire Rocket operation and base had appeared on his island seemingly overnight. The semi crazy fire type loving scientist had not taken kindly to the intrusion. Blaine and his gym members were holding the line for now but he had informed the league that Cinnabar would fall without heavy reinforcements. The last thing the league wanted was Cinnabar Island fully under Rocket control. So they had rushed out the Rangers they could spare headed by Lance with anyone not otherwise occupied with Red’s campaign in Neon Town._

_Ash and Leaf were two of the Elite Rangers selected to go in with the troops. Now Leaf was lost somewhere in this fire fight and he had to find her. Last thing he had seen was Leaf being subdued by a large number of Rocket troops._

_Breathing was already becoming difficult…probably in part due to Blaine’s overzealous defense when Team Rocket launched a surprise attack from their secret Cinnabar base. Blaine apparently subscribed to the theory of burn baby burn. Coughing slightly Ash wiped away some of the soot from the corners of his mouth as he advanced further into the burned out urban landscape. Just as he reached another intersection he heard a cry from his side. “Choke…” The Machoke glared at Ash before it started to charge him. Ash grunted as he prepared himself for hand to hand combat._

_Luckily Gardevoir appeared next to Ash and used psychic to slam the Machoke into the ground before his neck suddenly twisted of it’s own accord leaving the Machoke completely still. Ash did not even have a chance to thank his pokemon before she teleported back into the battle against Team Rocket’s numerous fighting types. ‘Where the fuck are they?’ Ash thought as he looked around. Those bastards had Leaf and to hell if he would lose her to Rocket after they took his mother._

_Ash had made it 10 city blocks before two Rocket Dragonites rose above some of the buildings. The two Dragonites started to decimate the surrounding Kanto Trainers in his zone of combat and Ash knew that Lance was otherwise engaged or he would leave it to the Dragon Master. With a growl at any kind of delay he threw forth two pokeballs. “Salamence! Charizard! Go! Destroy the Dragonites!”_

_He continued to move forward looking for any sign of Leaf. He heard the roar of acknowledgment from his two dragons in the back ground. The sounds of the dragons battling faded as he continued onwards. The streets were abnormally quiet despite the obvious signs of ongoing battles._

_After what felt like hours of travel but was probably less than 15 minutes he came upon a square. Within the square stood Leaf…bound in chains in front of a Rocket operative. By Leaf also bound in what appeared to be black chains was a pokemon he had never seen before. It stood at about human height but had a purple tail and oddly shaped joints. He could not identify the pokemon due to the black armor it wore. He could only assume the pokemon was captive as well. Surrounding the armored Pokemon he noted that there were four Absol one in each direction keeping it hemmed in._

_He started to hurry towards the group and throwing forth Lucario as Pikachu bounded forward. “Quickly I need you both to!” Ash could only cry out as he watched the lead Rocket operative jab a large hunting knife into her back before pushing it up further into her body. The man grinned at Ash when he saw the Ranger running into the square. “And the hero fails.” He yelled out to the Ranger with a laugh._

_“LEAF!” Ash screamed as he forwent all pretenses of his own safety running towards the Rocket members and the pack of Absol completely alone. “LEAF!”_

_Leaf’s eyes locked onto Ash’s for a moment. Her eyes shining with unshed tears as she coughed attempting to speak. Only blood came out of her mouth. Small flecks spitting forth before blood started to run down the corners of her mouth. She tried to smile at Ash…he always came in time…always._

_She felt her eyes becoming heavy as felt conscience start to slip away. She wanted to stay awake for Ash for when he beat the Rocket scum…but she was just so tired. ‘Just close your eyes for a moment…just a little you will wake up and Ash will save you just like always.’ She knew even as she thought it that she was lying to herself. She knew she was near the end but she was so tired._

_Ash watched helplessly as Leaf collapsed to the ground. Her skin was already becoming pale and he could see a pool of blood slowly leaking out from around her. Just a little too late Lucario and Pikachu got into battle positions_ _. ”Kill them…kill them all!” His order was barely a whisper but the two pokemon started in on attack. Lucario kept three of the Absol busy while Pikachu fried the Rocket operative’s brain with a direct lightning bolt to the head. Ash could only see red…he had tackled the remaining Absol that was still guarding the armored pokemon heedless of the pokemon attempting to stab him with its bladed head._

_“Fucking die you piece of shit!” He screamed as his hands wrapped around the Absol’s neck. It continued to struggle scrabbling at him with its claws even trying to beat at him with its tail but Ash continued on. Bearing down on the Absol he felt the vertebrae in the Absol’s neck start to crack._

_Finally the Absol stopped struggling. Ash only let up when he felt a sudden intrusion into his head. He glanced up trying to find the source before finally narrowing in on the armored pokemon._

_“She is gone young Ash…” The unfamiliar voice spoke slowly as the armored pokemon slowly walked over to Leaf’s prone body. It regarded the human for a moment…curious before slowly kneeling down and gently closing blank unseeing her eyes. “She tried to save me.”_

_It spoke more as a question than a statement. Ash just nodded slightly as he moved over to Leaf’s body and knelt down by her. Despite what the armored pokemon just did he shook her slightly…hoping somehow he would get a response. Just looking at the blood pooling around the girl he knew she would never wake again. He just sat there for a moment staring at her dead body. The blood continued to leak out from the knife still in her back from when they rushed Team Rocket._

_After a few moments of silence he felt the pokemon speak again. “I am Mewtwo…I was created from Mew. Team Rocket planned on using me to awaken Moltres to end the resistance on this island and kill those that opposed their plans for this region. Your friend attempted to rescue me before she was overwhelmed by Rocket operatives.” The psychic pokemon finished through the link before staring down at the dead girl. “She was a brave soul I am sorry Ash Ketchum.” It spoke relevantly of the dead girl._

_For a moment Ash was silent as he finally looked up to Cinnabar Mountain. “Can you do it?”_

_Mewtwo understood what the trainer desired…he wanted revenge and the utter destruction of Team Rocket. It was written across the Ranger’s face and it did not even require him to dig below the surface thoughts. “Of course…for a little while but I will lose control when Moltres fully wakes up without the backing of Team Rocket’s psychic resonance generator. As you know a legendary cannot control another legendary without a certain amount of extra power.”_

_The black haired man nodded a little before staring at Mewtwo with rage and the thirst for revenge. “Do it…burn them all…make them feel my pain.” Ash glanced at Mewtwo and then took in the broken looks of Lucario and Pikachu both had been fond of Leaf. “Our pain.” He amended quietly._

_Mewtwo nodded. “Keep me protected and I will grant your wish. Once Rocket is wiped off the island though I plan on disappearing before too many questions are asked about how Moltres appeared. I would like to live out a life…of solitude.”_

_Nodding Ash turned to Lucario. “Keep him protected while he controls Moltres.” Looking over to Mewtwo he shot the armored pokemon a smirk despite the fact he was crumbling on the inside. “Just have Moltres follow me from above. I will call out the targets as I see them. If I get too busy just burn the fucking island down.” His eyes slowly drifted back to Leaf as he attempted to hold in his grief which was slowly replaced by even more rage._

_“I won’t tell them anything…no worries Mewtwo…” Ash said quietly before he turned to Mewtwo. “I never saw you.” With that Ash slowly pushed himself off the ground looking down upon Leaf’s body before turning towards Rocket’s line. “Burn them all…Pokemon, Trainers, Women, Children, Rocket’s labors, and anyone else aligned with Rocket. There are no innocents only bodies that do not realize they are dead yet.” Mewtwo’s eyes glowed a bright blue and in the distance the Cinnabar volcano erupted in a slew of lava and ashes. Out of the ashes rose Moltres a legendary fire bird. Enraged at its forced awakening the bird flew high into the atmosphere before Mewtwo subjected it’s will upon the legendary bird. Ash started walking towards the main base of Rocket operations._

_Above Ash, Moltres hovered…it’s eyes glowing a brilliant blue. Ash pointed towards Rocket members and their pokemon as they appeared. “Burn them alive Moltres!” The giant fire bird complied sending out flame throwers that instantly incinerated some while leaving others to riving in pain from the burns that would not stop eating away at their flesh. Ash sentenced many to a slow death of watching their body literally flake away into blackened ashes._

 

/\  /\

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Oldale Pokemon Center – 3AM Apx in the morning.

 

May woke up with a start. She glanced around momentarily disoriented before she heard a scream coming from the other room. Thinking Ash was in trouble May flew into his room looking for any signs of trouble. The only thing she found was Ash lying in the small double bed tossing and turning. Every now and again he let out a whimper but the screaming had stopped momentarily.

“Oh Ash…” May murmured as she sat down on the bed next to his sleeping form. She gently started to rub his back. This seemed to calm him down slightly. “What could cause such terrible nightmares.” She wondered aloud before looking around the room to look for any causes. The only thing she could see was Pikachu in sitting up on the desk staring at his trainer in concern.

Gently she pulled her arms away from Ash but the moment she broke contact he started to shiver uncontrollably before he started to toss and turn. Sweat breaking across his brow. “Ok ok…guess it wouldn’t hurt to lie down for a minute.” She spoke mostly to herself but she convinced herself that she was speaking to Pikachu.

 

/\  /\

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Oldale Pokemon Center – 8 AM

Ash woke up with yawn. He was amazed how refreshed he felt and how warm he felt. Normally he woke up cold and shaking if he slept more than 4 hours uninterrupted by nightmares it was a miracle. He was about to get up when he felt something wrapped around his middle. He glanced down and saw a pair of feminine arms wrapped around his abdomen.

He slowly glanced over to the table to see Pikachu sitting there smiling at him. “Pika!” It gave Ash a thumbs up.

On one hand he knew exactly who would be there when he turned his head to the side and caught sight of May’s face peeking out behind the curtain of her brunette locks. ’Once again if Lance knew half the shit I got myself into.’ He thought with a slight groan.

“Ga…” May grumbled as she rolled off of Ash with a hiccup before she woke herself up with a start. She glanced around confused for a moment before a red blush spread across her face. “Ash…?”

Ash stared back at May completely deadpanned before posing the same question to her. “May…?”

May laughed nervously before she slowly detangled herself from the sheets. “Sorry…I came in when I heard you screaming…and well umm…you seemed to quiet down when I held you.” She finished quickly…the blush rising to her cheeks again.

At this Ash blushed as well…he thought he had managed to stop the screaming in his sleep. He was slightly embarrassed by the fact that May had been woken up by his nightmares. He was also equally confused by May’s admission that he had calmed down after she had lain down next to him.

“Umm…well anyway…we should probably get going if we want to get to Petalburg.” Ash muttered as he slowly pulled himself out of the bed.

May nodded blushing red as a tomato when she caught sight of Ash standing in his boxers only. “Well I better get back to my room!” With that May practically disappeared from the room leaving a confused Ash behind.

 

/\  /\

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Route 102 – Afternoon

 

 

After the awkward morning wake up the two had quickly packed up and left the room. They just managed to stop by to grab Ash’s pokemon on their way out. In awkward silence they had departed Oldale Town and headed down Route 102 towards Petalburg City. They had been walking along at a steady pace but neither one of the two wanted to really bridge the silence or acknowledge what had occurred last night. It was easier to ignore it and continue towards Petalburg City.

The only sound came from the sound of their shoes hitting the packed dirt road and Pikachu twitching now and again. At some point during the walk May had ended up at point with Ash trailing slightly behind. Pikachu ever vigilant on his shoulder looking for danger from both other trainers and wild pokemon. Once again the road seemed to be abandoned with no one else in sight.

Ash sighed…well at least the journey was nice and relaxing. The moment the thought crossed his mind he noticed Pikachu’s ears start to twitch wildly. ‘Shit…’ He groaned someone or something was ahead and whatever it was probably was a threat if Pikachu was picking it up from here. He quickly jogged up to May before tapping her arm nonchalantly. “Hey…get ready to battle...Pikachu is picking something up. The moment I send Pikachu out for an attack I need you to send out two of your strongest to play defense. I will take care of the rest.”

May nodded slightly indicating her understanding. Her one hand slipping back to the pokeballs for Venasaur and Glaceon that were attached to her belt. She attempted to look like she was just stretching her arm.

Not a moment later four members of the group May had run into earlier appeared out of the tree line on either side of the path. Their leader grinned before he threw out his pokeballs. A Torkoal and Magmar appeared in front of him. “I thought I would find you two making a run for the Ranger outpost in Petalburg.” He leered at May for a moment before turning to Ash.

“My name is Blaise I am an admin for Team Magma. I would normally do the cliché thing of offering you a place in our ranks but well that never works out for anyone involved.” He smirked as the other three members of his command threw their pokeballs forth. Two Slugma appeared in a blast of light from one of the trainers. Another brought forth three more Houndoom, and the final trainer left sent out an Onix.

Ash and May studied the pokemon for a moment while Ash was debating who to use other than Pikachu who was itching for a fight. He momentarily debated Pidgeot but if they needed to fly the rest of the way to Petalburg he did not want the bird injured or worse. Lucario was similarly out due to the partial steel type disadvantage. With only three of the opponents being Houndoom he probably use Arcanine to clean up the mess and use Sceptile to deal with Onix.

Ash laughed suddenly before he nodded to Pikachu. “So Team Magma…I will remember that name. Unfortunately you all need to die now…I can’t have you pursuing this poor girl all across Hoenn.” With a grin he threw out his two pokeballs as May threw out hers. “Go Arcanine! There are more Houndoom for you to clean up! Sceptile I want you take keep the Onix and Torkoal busy. Pikachu! Burn a fucking hole through that Magmar!”

“Venasaur back them up with razor leaf attacks and earthquake when you can. Glaceon just like last time target anything that gets too close!” May yelled out as her pokemon appeared from their pokeballs.

With a vicious thunder fang Arcanine tore into one of the Houndoom before the trainer could respond. The dark dog Pokemon whimpered from the giant gaping hole left in its side. The two other Houndoom responded with crunch attacks that dug into Arcanine’s hide. The giant lion dog pokemon roared in pain but other than the blood flowing from its coat it did not flinch away. Ash growled in anger that anyone dared touch Arcanine…despite the bound he had with Pikachu, Arcanine was his first capture as a Growlithe. “Light’um up Arcanine fires spin!”

With a growl the giant lion dog jumped back before releasing a torrent of fire that slowly formed into a tornado of fire around the three Houndoom hemming the three in.

Meanwhile Sceptile was using his Leaf Storm to divert the smoke and poison attacks from the Torkoal away from his trainer. Torkoal started to blow steam out of its snout in an attempt to divert the leaf storm from Onix. Sceptile quickly realized that the Torkoal would be dangerous if left to use his noxious clouds to build up a poisonous smog to hem in Ash’s pokemon. Ash also came to the same realization and glanced at Sceptile for a moment. “Sceptile use Leaf Tornado and bring that smog in before dispersing it into those two Slugma’s!”  

Sceptile grinned before he started a leaf storm attack before starting to use extreme speed in a tight circular pattern. A vortex of leaves quickly rose as a column into the sky and due to the strong rotation started to suck Torkoal’s smog and smoke into the vortex. The Torkoal was having none of it though…the turtle pokemon blew a stream of flames at the forest pokemon.

The forest pokemon was luckily more than willing to respond. The giant tornado of smog, smoke, and leaves quickly moved out of the way and head towards the Slugma. The two unfortunate fire pokemon despite the type advantage had a trainer that had no clue what to do. The storm passed through and left behind two beheaded Slugma. Sceptile’s signature leaf blade had cut through the unsuspecting pokemon like butter.

“Behind you Sceptile! Use Dragon Pulse to disrupt those flames!” Lucky for Sceptile he was such a fast pokemon or he would have been turned into a flash fried critter. The last minute Dragon Pulse managed to disrupt the flames coming forth from Torkoal.

Just as Sceptile was gearing up to deal with the giant steam turtle pokemon, Onix appeared out of the ground sending the forest pokemon flying high into the air. The forest pokemon grunted in annoyance over the surprise attack, chewing on the twig in frustration Sceptile glance at his trainer for direction.

‘It may just work.’ Grinning like a mad man, Ash had already taken in the two on one situation and just had an idea that might turn it around. “Sceptile use vine whip to grab onto Onix’s head during the fall.”

Without hesitation the forest pokemon let loose vines that quickly wrapped around the rock snake. Onix roared in pain from the painful grass move chipping away at its living rock skin.

“Now bring it down on Torkoal!” With a grin towards Blaise, Ash watched as Sceptile arced down through the air while dragging the roaring rock snake behind him.

With an ear splitting cry of pain the Onix unwillingly found itself body slamming the much smaller steam turtle. Both pokemon roared in pain from the unexpected treatment. Sceptile observed his opponents dispassionately before unleashing a solar beam attack into Onix’s back pushing the rock snake down on top of Torkoal further crushing it.

Ash glanced away figuring it would be handled as he turned his attention to Pikachu. The electric rodent was already hit by a glancing blow from a fire punch. Even with Pikachu’s raw power he needed to end it before Pikachu became seriously injured…or worse.

“Alright Pikachu play time is over agility…into volt tackle…right into Magmar’s chest. Drill right through that fucker with iron tail.” Magmar sensing danger let loose a torrent of flames at the little rodent as his trainer screamed at him to stop the rodent and barbeque the little fucker.

Unfortunately for the Magmar, Pikachu dove under the flames as it ran towards Magmar enveloping itself in a sheen of electricity. Just as Magmar switched over from flamethrower and attempted to hit Pikachu with a fire punch, Pikachu hit. The volt tackle blasted the Magmar to the ground and sent Pikachu sky high.

“Magmar flamethrower! Roast it while it’s in the air!” Magmar complied by spewing forth a gout of fire at the airborne Pikachu.

“Now Pikachu…Iron Tail! Spin counter clockwise to the flames!” Just as the flames were about to reach Pikachu his tail turned into a javelin and he twisted himself quickly in the air around and around. The counter clockwise motion dispelled the flames and Pikachu’s iron tail struck Magmar through the chest with such force that Magmar’s flame sac erupted. This blew Pikachu high into the air again.

Ash dove and managed to catch the small rodent. Pikachu looked up at Ash for a moment with weary eyes as he gave his trainer a thumbs up. Most of his coat was blackened now but luckily not much of the flames had reached the skin through the iron tail attack.

Sighing slightly he turned back to the other two fights. Arcanine was bleeding slightly from a few bite marks but appeared no worse for the wear. May’s Venasaur had finished the Houndoom trapped in the fire spin with a powerful earthquake attack if the jagged rocks pushed up into the bodies of the Houndoom was anything to go by.

Sceptile was having a tougher time of it. The Torkoal had managed a few good hits and he was visibly burned over parts of his body. Just as he was about to inform Arcanine to assist in the fight, May’s Glaceon stepped in. The Ice type stepped in with a mighty aqua tail and before the Torkoal could recover May’s Glaceon speared it through the neck with an ice beam attack.

Ash grinned at May for a moment before looking at Arcanine…the giant lion dog looked too pleased with itself. It had already killed the owner of the Houndoom…probably because it felt angered that someone would use a lesser dog like fire pokemon than he. “Arcanine!” The Lion Dog cocked it’s head to the side a cute puppy look coming across its face…if you could ignore the blood running down his jaws and the fact half of the Slugma trainer’s arm was hanging loosely out of his teeth.

“Drop it.” Ash commanded.

Arcanine whined in protest before finally obeying his master’s command and dropping his toy.

Unfortunately during the time that Ash had taken his attention off of Blaise the so called “admin” of this group, the man had upped and left with the remaining trainer that had not been killed by Arcanine.

“Oh well nothing for it I suppose.” Sighing in annoyance over the fact the man had gotten away. Knowing his luck the man would be causing further trouble for him since he escaped.

Ash and May quickly set about recalling their pokemon after they were sure that they had no further surprises. “Thanks for the assist.” Ash said as he took out Pidgeot’s pokeball. It looked like he would need the bird pokemon after all. He wanted to get Pikachu to a center right away and Sceptile was not looking much better.

May just nodded a little pale from all the bloodshed. Living in the city and having a gym leader for a father had sheltered May for much of her life. She numbly followed Ash’s nudging as she got onto Pidgeot and she felt him slide in behind her.

A moment later they were in the air heading towards Petalburg City. Ash surveying the land below as they passed overhead to keep a look out since Pikachu was in no condition to do more than lay in Ash’s back pack. “I’m sorry May…sometimes killing is the only way.”

May nodded slightly as she stared dead ahead. Currently she was unsure what to think but in a way she was glad they would be arriving at Petalburg City. She just wanted to crawl into bed and cry. She knew he was right…the way the lead man had leered at her. She shuddered just thinking of what would occur if Ash had not been there. In fact she knew what would have happened and it was none too pretty of a sight.

Ash stayed silent…he figured if anything May would be done now. After two life or death events in two days he would not blame her if she wanted to just go home and never leave again. Sometimes he really wished he had that luxury but ever since Rocket had killed his mother he really did not have a home to return to. The closest thing to home would probably be the Lab but even that was really only a safe place to sleep.

Shaking his head away he tried to concentrate again as he heard May speaking again. “Sorry…I drifted off for a moment. What did you say?”

May smirked slightly…despite only knowing this boy for less than two days she got the distinct impression that his mind would drift to other places on a regular basis. “I said I am still coming with you!” Her resolve hardened as she glanced back…just daring the young man to try to talk her out of it.

He laughed at the girls look. “You are a stubborn one aren’t you?” He shot her a wide smile.

Right before they could continue their conversation Pidgeot screeched out a general warning. Ash knew it meant that the destination was within Pidgeot’s sight. “Alright Pidgeot! Take us right over to the pokemon center. I need to get Pikachu, Arcanine and Sceptile looked over right away.”

Pidgeot squawked in acknowledgement before slowly circling in towards the Pokemon Center. Other trainers cleared out of the way as the giant bird set down right by the front entrance. The bird’s giant wings sending off mini dust devils.

A moment later Ash and May had hopped off Pidgeot and had rushed into the center.

“So…once your pokemon are back how about we head over to the Petalburg gym! I bet my mom will cook dinner tonight and I think I can even convince her to let you stay in the guest room rather than at the pokemon center.” May finished with a smile as she rocked back and forth on her heels hoping that he would say yes. How else would she convince her father she would be safe with Ash if he did not meet him.

Ash nodded slightly taking note that she only mentioned her mother in any kind of welcoming way. He felt May left it unspoken that her father would be less than pleased about the surprise guest. “Umm well a home cooked meal sounds good and a bed not at a pokemon center also sounds great.”

“Then it’s settled! We will head to the gym right after Pikachu and the others are returned.” May jumped up and down in victory before she started watching the doors that went back into the Center’s main care area. She did not want to be held up one second if she could help it.

Ash just stood by and smiled at the girl’s impatience over the wait. He was used to the waits and found he was no longer bothered by them anymore. Or at least that is what he told himself as he found his own foot tapping. ‘A warm homemade meal after a long trip and a trying couple of days…nothing could make it better.’ He thought for a moment before glancing at the cute brunette who was rocking on her heels impatiently. ‘Well perhaps one thing…’ His thoughts drifted off.

 

 

A/N: Alright hope you liked the chapter. Next chapter we introduce the Maple family.

 


	4. The Petalburg Shuffle

A/N: Brock is joining the next chapter for sure. Max may join for a while but I just don’t know if I can effectively sustain him for a long period of time. I like him but I don’t think I can write him well. Then again the only way I have been able to write the characters is taking artistic license and blaming differences on their new situations. Anyway enough rambling onto the chapter there is more rambling at the end.

 

Chapter 4 – The Petalburg Shuffle

 

Petalburg Pokemon Center –

Ash walked up to the front desk that was as always was attended by a Nurse Joy. Ash shot the woman a smile before he placed his pokeballs down and dumping Pikachu down next to them in front of the nurse. “Good evening Miss.” He grinned a little when Nurse Joy blushed a little from the title. “If you could heal these pokemon as quickly as possible…”

Nurse Joy nodded quickly before scooping up the Pokeballs. Pikachu meanwhile jumped onto Nurse Joy’s shoulder while shooting his trainer a thumbs up. “They will be done in half an hour Sir!” She quickly rushed off to the back and through the doors a light blush still on her cheeks.

Ash glanced over at May who was looking at him with a slight glare…’Er maybe not the best idea…’ He laughed nervously before scratching the back of his head. “I find a little compliment here or there gets the pokemon healed a little faster than just being another face in the sea of trainers that passes by.” He offered as an explanation hoping that she would not kill him…or worse deny him a homemade meal.

“Right…well I hope that is all it amounts to.” May gave Ash a final warning glare. The last thing she wanted was to end up traveling with a complete man whore who flirted with every female he met along the way.

Brock sneezed suddenly…he wondered where it came from. Glancing up he realized that he would be arriving in Petalburg City shortly.

Ash nodded quickly in an attempt to appease the angry brunette…again the last thing he needed was to lose a chance at a home cooked meal when he was so close. ‘Speaking of home…I should probably check in with Gary.’ He glanced at the clock and saw that he still had at least twenty five minutes until his pokemon would be ready.

May debated for a moment if she should forgive the trainer. ‘Well he did save my life…and this is the first time that he really has shown any signs of being a jerk. As long as Ash doesn’t turn out to be like Drew is with women.’ She shuddered slightly at thought, momentarily lost in her own world she never really responded to Ash’s nod. 

“Hey May.” Ash grabbed May’s attention. “I need to make a call home. I am going to go grab a video phone real quick. I will be back by the time my pokemon are healed.” Getting a confirmation from May in the form of an absent minded nod he strolled over to the video phone banks and picked one in the corner.

He pulled his pokedex out of his pocket and looked up Gary’s contact number for the lab. ‘One would think after so many years I would have gotten it memorized.’ He carefully punched in the numbers and awaited the dial tone to go through. Luckily Gary being younger than his grandfather tended to be a little more in tune with current technology.

When Gary answered the phone his head was facing away from Ash.

“Good Evening Professor’s Oak’s lab, how may I be of assistance?” Gary queried towards a completely blank video phone monitor.

‘Or maybe not so up with the technology…’ Ash placed his head into his hand and sighed slightly. ‘I guess the apple really does not fall far from the tree.’ Waiting another moment Ash decided to direct Gary to the correct video phone screen. “Uh hey Gary over here...behind you.”

Gary swung around quickly in his chair and gave Ash a once over before a giant grin broke across his face. “Well well well if it isn’t the loser! I see you made it to the Hoenn region in one piece. I am surprised you are still alive with me around to remind you to not over do it.” Gary spoke in a joking matter not that Ash could ever tell...he wasn’t huge on the whole subtlety aspect and Gary happened to know just how to push those buttons for fun now and again.

Ash’s eyebrow twitched slightly from Gary’s statement. If there was one person that could break the cool and collected façade he normally would wear while in public and battling it was Gary. “Who are you calling a loser pal! If I remember correctly I was the one that destroyed you in the Kanto League! You want a piece come and get it!” Ash had by this point jumped up for his chair and has his fist pointed at the video screen all the while his face had contorted into a mask of pure rage and slowly growing red.

“You get a boat and get right over here if you want a rematch! My team will bury you so fast your head will be spinning for a week. I will show you why I am a Ranger!” Ash was still shaking his fist and all the while Gary was putting his hands up in a placating manner in an attempt to calm Ash down.  

 “Calm down Ash… I was joking with you, you damn raving lunatic.” Gary just shook his head. Ash really could not take any type of ribbing without going completely and utterly overboard when it came to him. It was like he was hard wired to respond to even the simplest jokes as if they were a threat on his life.

Right before Ash could calm down and get on with the actual conversation May interrupted.

“You are a Ranger!? So that is why you were so good! It is no wonder you managed to dispatch those thugs with only three pokemon. Why didn’t you tell me?!” May burst onto the video screen on Gary’s end as she began to violently shake Ash in an excited manner over the new information. ‘Wow a real honest to goodness Ranger! There is no way Dad can stop me now!’ May thought in excitement over this new development.

“Nice Ash…real low profile please tell me this girl is at least trust worthy.” Gary sighed on the over end as he rested his face in his hand.

“Umm…May how did you hear me?” Ash cocked his head to the side trying to figure out how she would have overheard him. He never realized that his version of an inside voice was most people’s version of yelling.

Luckily May was saved from having to answer by Gary who spoke up from the other line. A vein above Gary’s eye twitched a little as he slowly ground out the answer to Ash as if he were explaining to a child for the 50th time why he could not stay up until midnight. “Well Ash you were not exactly quietly shouting out that you were a Ranger across the whole damn lounge area.”

Ash brightened slightly at the statement before glancing around quickly to see if anyone else had potentially heard his statement. Luckily after a quick glance he saw that the lobby was empty and no one else was near the video phone banks. He chuckled a little as he turned towards May attempting to figure out how to explain this away. “Umm…well …you see…” Ash was floundering for an explanation but he really did not have one as he had never really planned on telling May. He figured if it ever came up…well he would figure it out at the time. Unfortunately that was failing him currently and miserably.

Gary sighed in annoyance over the whole scene unfolding in front of him. ‘Once again…who the fuck had the most excellent idea to send Ash in on a covert spy mission…not that I really helped the situation by winding him up. I guess it is up to me to pull his ass out of the fire as per usual.’ He gave Ash a moment longer to see if he could come up with anything.

Finally Gary stepped in to the relief of Ash. “Well beautiful young lady, may I call you May? I am Gary Oak, professor, researcher, and in my spare time…underwear model.” Gary flashed a smile towards the pretty brunette and received a blush in return over the introduction. “Ash here used to be a Ranger and he decided to take an early retirement from the League after a particularly nasty battle. He decided to start over as good ol’ Ash Ketchum. Just a talented trainer and nothing more if you catch my drift?” Gary glanced at Ash quickly to make sure Ash was paying attention and gave him a ‘You owe me so big.’ Before turning his attention back to May.

“Now how did such a charming young lady such as yourself come to start traveling with my resident friend and dunderhead?” Gary smirked as he watched Ash’s eyebrow start to twitch over the statement. ‘So god damn easy this should be illegal.’ He thought with a grin before turning his attention back to May.

May blushed at the attention she was receiving from the handsome young professor. She quickly went over the first and subsequent attacks from the oddly dressed men and how Ash had stepped in both times to protect her from harm.

Gary listened intently to the story all the while nodding or humming in the correct parts of the story. All the while Ash just sat there awkwardly blushing over the retelling of the story. When she finally ended the story Ash managed to mumble out. “No big deal anyone would have done it.”

May gently swatted his arm as Gary grinned over the interaction between the two. ‘Well maybe Ash is finally getting over Leaf…or at least moving on.’ Gary contemplated momentarily before deciding perhaps he should help move this along in a less platonic direction. ‘Ash may be dense…but the girl certainly isn’t.’

“So Ash…I was just thinking it is a good thing you don’t have a girl or else I believe one would be jealous over the fact you have saved the beautiful Miss. May not once but twice. Yes it certainly is in your favor that is for sure.” Gary nodded to himself after his little on the fly speech that he knew Ash would not catch the meaning of. ‘Christ almighty the boy is dense I still don’t know how he ever figured out his feelings for Leaf…then again I still don’t understand how either of them could stand each other.’  Gary simply shook his head. From his brief interaction with May, Gary could tell that she was not a girl to beat around the bush about certain things. For Ash that was probably a good thing.

“Why did you bring that up Gary?” Ash queried with a slight tilt of his head.

Gary laughed slightly. “Nothing Ash…never mind. Anyway why did you call anyway…we never really did get to that with all the excitement you caused earlier.” He ventured hoping to draw the conversation back to the whole entire reason that Ash had called him in the first place.

Ash grumbled under his breath. “God damn Gary…” He looked up noticing that he had the attention of both Gary who once again had his head resting in his hand and May staring at him as well shaking her head slightly.

“Volume control Ash…learn it.” Gary sighed as he looked back at the screen and giving May a sly wink.

May giggled over the whole thing. ‘These two are just too funny.’ Now she knew that she made the right choice, she had been slightly worried by her new travel partner’s cool personality and what appeared to be smooth talking attitude towards women but now she was not really that worried. ‘Gary certainly knows how to bring Ash’s more fiery personality out that is for sure.’ She pondered for a moment before turning her attention back between the two. She ended up hovering over Ash’s shoulder so her face remained in the screen and she could see Gary a little easier.

“Yeah yeah…yeah…look I am just checking on my Pokemon how are they doing in Pallet?” Ash queried hoping that Gary did not run into any trouble and had actually seen the need to use their services to defend Pallet. Ash had done his best to keep his anger from seeping into his voice. He was still kind of peeved from the start of the conversation.

Gary shrugged slightly while putting his hands behind his head. “Well they seem to be fine…I don’t know if they understand the quiet life of Pallet town. They are so jumpy but they are getting better. If nothing else the townspeople feel pretty safe not that they didn’t before with Gramps and me around. Still nothing like knowing an Elite Ranger’s pokemon on guard.”

‘Shit…opps.’ Gary groaned he did not mean to say that. ‘Perhaps she did not hear that.’ Glancing at May’s surprised face he saw that she definitely heard that. ‘Oh well something new for Ashy boy to deal with I guess.’ Gary was glad this issue was not his problem that was for sure…well other than Ash’s anger.

“Gary…you talk too much.” Ash grounded out. ‘Really and he berates me for my outbursts. At least mine are when I am angry…this jack ass just doesn’t pay attention either that or he enjoys seeing me in awkward situations.’ Ash was about to reach for the button to terminate the call before Gary said anything else before Gary shot up from his chair quickly.

“Sorry sorry…well anyway Brock should be arriving in about a day. He gave me a call from the cruise ship.” In response Gary received a blank stare. ‘You have got to be kidding me.’

“Ash you did remember that Brock was meeting up with you right?” Gary asked hoping that Ash did not confirm his thoughts.

“Well…of course I remembered! Our whole plan was to meet here! I wouldn’t forget it.” Ash laughed nervously while scratching the back of his head.

Gary just sighed in frustration…really Ash could be so forgetful sometime. If he had not reminded Ash he knew that Brock would arrive in Petalburg City and Ash would be two cites over. “Anyway I am signing off just remember not to leave Brock in Petalburg.”

Ash nodded before he ended the call on his end. He glanced up at the clock and saw that it had been well over the half hour quote. “Crap…well that conversation took a lot longer than I thought.” He glanced around quickly to make sure they were the only ones in the lobby area. Luckily there still seemed to be no one in the lobby area.

The black haired trainer turned to May with a nervous smile. “Hey May if you could ummm not mention any of the Ranger stuff that would be great. I kinda just want to be a normal trainer and not have to worry about any of that stuff. I also find it intimidates people when I don’t mean to.”

May pondered for a moment mulling over Ash’s request. It would be harder to convince her father but if Ash was here to collect gym badges anyway he would be able to show his power through his Pokemon not through his title. After a moment longer she nodded to Ash. “No problem Ash! You secret is safe with me…and since you are my traveling partner I feel even better about this arrangement!”

Ash and May left the videophone area and grabbed Ash’s pokemon from the front desk before thanking Nurse Joy for her quick turnaround time in service. Pikachu jumped on to Ash’s shoulder before the small group departed the pokemon center.

Ash followed May’s lead as she wove in and out of the main roads and side streets. They were getting further and further away from the Pokemon center. Taking a quick look around Ash could not find any buildings in the direction they were traveling that appeared to stand out as a gym. Shrugging he kept on following May his stomach gurgling. “Hey May how much longer until your house?”

May glanced back at Ash when she heard the gurgling which just ended up reminding her stomach how hungry it was and an answering gurgle came from her stomach.

Ash and May looked at each and laughed. “Well I guess our stomachs are trying to tell us that it is time for dinner! Luckily we are almost there.” May grinned at Ash as they both continued onwards towards the Maple home.

Just as May was nearing her home with Ash in tow she saw a sight ahead that made her want to simultaneously gag and run away. Unfortunately the young man with green hair stood directly in their path to the gym and there really wasn’t a good way around him.

 

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The green haired man awaited for May at the street corner and directly behind him was the gym. Norman had requested he take a look for May since the girl should have returned earlier today. The brunette’s father had gotten worried and since he was the gym leader it was hard to leave Petalburg City. Max had been deemed too young if May had been in trouble. ‘Which of course left me…the upcoming Hoenn Ranger every father’s dream for their little girl to marry. A stable job and a strong enough man to keep his little girl safe how could Norman not say no to my request to travel with May and keep her safe.’

He flicked his hair letting his carefully maintained locks spin in the hair before falling over one eye. ‘It gets the girls every time.’ Drew’s smile turned to a slight frown as he realized the dark haired man was with his May. At first he thought they were simply traveling in the same direction but instead she seemed to be talking to him. He just caught the tail end of their conversation making him frown even more.

“Don’t worry Ash it’s just Drew shouldn’t take more than a minute.” May spoke to Ash before directing her attention to Drew who she noticed had a sour look on his face. ‘Gee Drew try to make yourself more appealing why don’t you.’ She thought sarcastically. Drew always rubbed her the wrong way and ever since he started to train to become a Hoenn Ranger he attempted to convince her father that he should let her travel like she wanted. ‘Of course the catch was that he would be my traveling partner…as if I would accept that deal!’

Ash mumbled a response that Drew did not catch but he knew immediately he did not like this guy and the fact that May seemed so close to him. “Well May, glad to see you are alright. Your father just sent me out to come and find you.” He glanced at Ash before he proceeded. “Though it appears you made it home alright…with an unexpected guest. I am sure your father will be so pleased that you picked up a vagabond for dinner.”

Ash’s eyebrow twitched a little as he squashed down the urge to strangle the little prick. Not even two sentences in and he wanted to take this kid and strangle him. ‘Perhaps May would not mind too much.’ Glancing over at May, she seemed to be in the same boat as he was with the annoying green haired kid. “I’m a pokemon trainer not a vagabond and May invited me over for dinner.” Pikachu pointed to itself on Ash’s shoulder while chattering in an angry tone as if to say ‘Did you miss the yellow electric mouse on his shoulder dumb ass.’ This caused Ash to smirk slightly at Pikachu’s less than pleasant tone before turning his attention to Drew.

Drew sneered at the black haired trainer. “Watch your tone I am now a certified Hoenn league Ranger. I am no gym leader that will go easy on you just because you are looking for a badge kid.” Drew crossed his arms over his chest giving Ash a glare as if daring him to decide to contradict him.  

May sensing that Ash was about to explode decided to intervene before Norman came out to a destroyed front lawn and most of the street in front of the house. “Drew thanks for volunteering to look for me but as you can see I am perfectly fine. If you could restrain yourself from insulting my guest any further I am taking him to our house for dinner.” May grinned her eyes almost turning red in barely contained rage before her voice dropped to a whisper. “And Drew I don’t care how strong you are…you know what happened last time that you got between dinner and I.”

The brunette was pleased to see a shudder run across the green haired man’s frame. Apparently he did remember quite well the way he reacted to her words. “Well Drew it is time for dinner so I will see you around.”

Ash and May were about to take off when Drew’s response stopped May dead in her tracks.

“Excellent I shall accompany you. Your father insisted that I come over for dinner once I came back with you.” Drew shot the two a grin he knew May especially was less than pleased with his response but such was life. It was so much fun to wind the poor girl up.  

Ash simply raised an eyebrow at the whole conversation. ‘This guy is a real ass hat…with an attitude like that he would have been eaten alive at the Ranger academy in Kanto. Perhaps Hoenn just doesn’t make’um like they used to.’ Ash mused silently as he followed a haughty Drew and a fuming May into the house.

“May! You’re back!” Caroline appeared by the door and hugged her wayward daughter. “We just sent Drew to find you. How was the trip?” Caroline smiled before turning her attention to Ash. “And who is this with you? Another guest?”

May smiled her mother was always so welcoming to everyone. “The trip was umm…more exciting than expected! This is Ash he was actually sent with the package from Professor Birch and ran into me in between Littleroot and Oldale. He decided to travel back here with me.” She decided to leave out life and death attacks until after dinner lest her mom completely freak out.

Caroline smiled at Ash before greeting the young man with a hug which left the black haired man with a look of surprise that he shot to May. “It’s so nice to meet a friend of May’s! Thank you for looking out for her and what a cute looking Pikachu you have there.”

“Pikaaaa!” Pikachu looked quite pleased with itself as he chittered upon Ash’s shoulder.

The group was led into the dining room that was loaded down with what appeared to be a feast. A tall man with blue hair was already sitting at the table. He shot a smile when he saw that his daughter arrived looking none worse for the wear. A raised eyebrow was sent to his wife upon seeing not only Drew appear behind his daughter but another young man he had never met before.

Caroline shrugged in response to her husband’s look before ushering the two guests into the free seats. “I’ll set a place for you both in a minute.” With that she disappeared into the kitchen to grab some flat wear for the two guests.

This left Norman to study the young man who looked so familiar…something about the Pikachu riding on the younger man’s shoulder trigged a memory of a conversation with Whitney from the Johto league. Since both were normal type gym leaders they spoke on a semi normal basis. He shook his head slightly as he could not place what it was about. ‘Can’t be that important if you can’t remember it Norman you’re just getting old.’ “Welcome to the Petalburg Gym and my home young man. I assume there is a story behind your presence in my house?” He said in as kind a matter as possible. He did not want to give the young man the impression he wasn’t welcome here and he especially did not want to start another fight with his daughter. Glancing at May he received a nod to his question.

“All in good time dear, it looks like Max has just arrived.” Caroline appeared in the doorway to the dining room with Max in tow. To be honest Caroline was quite pleased to have so many guests since it would normally result in less left overs.  

Max took his normal seat while staring curiously at Ash, he knew Drew and the young man appeared at their house often enough but Ash was certainly someone he had never met before. “Hey mom who’s that?” Pointing directly at Ash.

 “Max it is rude to point and that is May’s friend, Ash, he helped her bring the package from Professor Birch back to your father.” Caroline sighed a little in frustration no matter how hard she tried her children never seemed to understand manners.

“Oh alright.” Max seemed satisfied with the answer for the moment and made the first move to dig in. The remainder of the family and guests followed suit.

Twenty minutes later most of the Maple family had concluded their meal along with Drew. Ash and May on the other hand seemed to be having some kind of sick contest over who could eat the most food. Norman stared in private disbelief at the scene. ‘Well I knew May could pack it down…but I never thought she would find someone that could hold their own against her.’

Caroline just smiled at the two as she continually exchanged empty plates for full plates. ‘So nice that May found someone else that appreciates my cooking as much as she does.’

Drew on the other hand had a look of disgust on his face. ‘Are these two monsters? No human should be able to bear that much food…’

Finally Max just looked on with interest. He made sure not to get too close to their hands. ‘Hmm I wonder if either of these two have some type of Snorlax DNA in their genes…that may explain some things. Especially the rage May seemed to have when awoken early from slumber.’ Max nodded to himself and decided to continue observe the two for further evidence. ‘Perhaps I can write a research paper and submit it to Professor Birch.’

Finally after another ten minutes Ash and May’s food intake fell to a trickle. Only grabbing a roll or other smaller item now and again, Ash and May finally were slowing down enough that the others could finally start a conversation.

Norman laughed a little at the whole scene as he addressed the young man. “Well then now that you two are done with your meal how did you meet my daughter, Ash?” He was interested as to how his daughter had run into the young man.

Ash realized that Norman had been talking to him and he came up for a breath of air between grabbing another piece of toast and moving on to grabbing another rice ball. “I was asked by Professor Birch to deliver a package to you. Luckily he informed me that May was already on her way so I just met up with her on the way and we decided it made sense to just travel back here together.”

Norman nodded slightly it seemed like a reasonable explanation. “Well thank you for escorting her the rest of the way here young man. As much as she enjoys traveling I do worry about her, what with the female trainers that travel alone being kidnapped the last few months. Even worse there are rumors of someone trying to reawaken two legendary pokemon from their slumber.” He smiled to his daughter knowing she did not exactly agree with his over protective zeal but outside Petalburg City he really had no power to protect her.

“Unsubstantiated at best Mr. Maple, the Hoenn League has been investigating but so far nothing solid has been uncovered.” Drew cut into the conversation.

“So what have you heard about this?” Ash queried to the older gentleman his interest in the food forgotten.

Norman nodded a little hesitant to voice the rumors in front of both his younger son who was traveling and his daughter. In the end he decided the information could only assist. “Well other than the disappearing female trainers which have of course made the news, I have heard that some unexplained dig sites have been found in some of the remote regions of Hoenn. From what has been going through the rumor mill the dig sites are always found mostly abandoned and anything of worth taken. I guess the police got close a few times because whenever anything is recovered they are normally tablets depicting a giant salamander like pokemon, a flying dragon, or a giant whale like pokemon. Nothing anyone has ever seen on record either. Some people are saying that they are forgotten legendary pokemon.”

“Huh...interesting.” This left Ash to ponder on what Mr. Maple had said. In fact that matched up with what May had said was on the tablets she had briefly looked when she stumbled into the dig site.

Drew cleared his throat and once again interjected himself into the conversation. “I don’t think the rumor mill of Hoenn can be counted on when it comes to the existence of legendary pokemon. They are just that mere legends.”

Norman had to keep himself from rolling his eyes…though it didn’t stop Max from. Norman sent a glance at his son clearly telling his son to knock it off. Even if Drew was fairly full of himself he was still a guest.

“Actually I have run into the legendary birds of Kanto.” Ash volunteered the information which caused most of the Maple family to look on with interest while Drew merely offered a sneer.

“I highly doubt a legendary pokemon would make itself known to an ordinary trainer.” Drew responded.

“I didn’t say that Drew, I said I have run into them, that doesn’t mean I met them personally. In fact Moltres was a known part of the defense of Cinnabar island.” Ash shot a slightly superior smirk at the Hoenn Ranger.

“He does have a point Drew.” Norman waved his fork in the air. “Remember every story has a grain of truth and it has already been proven that Kanto has legendary pokemon that are quite real. Would it be that out there for Hoenn or even Johto to have the same?”

Drew grumbled a little but had to admit the two had a point. It was well known that Moltres had made an experience during the Rocket Wars in Kanto in the final days and really turned the tide for the League. “Yeah I guess. Well either way our Rangers actually got a call last night that led us to our biggest bust yet. Our sweep and clear team managed to pick up some suspects. There were two people dressed in some funky gear down in the woods between Oldale and Littleroot. They were trying to pack up a dig site. Unfortunately the other two members down there got away but with what was left and some documents we got it looks like the people at the dig sites are linked to the kidnappings.”

“Oh well that is good…hopefully traveling in Hoenn will be safe again if the Rangers put an end to this group now before they expand too much.” Norman commented.

May finally coughed a little and cleared her throat. “Umm speaking of that Dad…umm I think I am ready to start traveling.”

Drew finally flashed a smile. “Well that sounds fine with me! I am on assignment to try and find any new dig sites near the larger cities so I am sure we can stop by for a contest or two before moving on.”

May glared at Drew before returning her attention to her father. “Actually Dad I want to travel with Ash. He is a really powerful trainer and I know he will be able to handle anything thrown at us.”

After looking at her father’s look to go on she quickly explained the two attacks on her life while leaving out the fact that they slept in the same bed in Oldale. By the time she had finished her mother was crying and thanking the poor boy with a bone shattering hug. Norman was looking impressed and Drew…well Drew was about ready to explode.

“That is all well and good May but what if you two run into some serious danger. This man may be able to handle the goons on a dig team but from the reports they clearly were not the arm of the group that is doing the kidnapping. From the evidence you are going to need some seriously powerful protection to stop those creeps.” The green haired braggart nodded to himself as if confirming his theory. “No I just can’t allow you to travel with such weak protection.”

Ash at this point was twitching slightly in his chair as Caroline unwrapped her arms from around the young man. May’s mother looked none too pleased by Drew’s assessment of Ash even if she had never seen him battle.

Norman taking the two young men in got an idea. If the boy was a trainer he needed a badge anyway and if Ash could hold his own against a Ranger then he could certainly earn the balance badge and protect May. “Well I believe we can settle this with a pokemon battle. Ash as a Trainer I am sure you are looking for a badge. So here are the rules it will be a double battle with the use of four pokemon. Ash if you can hold your own against Drew not only will you earn the Balance badge but you can escort May through Hoenn if you so desire. Drew if you win by a landslide victory and May is still willing than I will allow you to escort her on her journey through Hoenn.”

Both young men were glaring at each other at this point. There was a nod between the two before the family and two young men left the kitchen to head to the gym.

 

/\  /\

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-Petalburg Gym

Norman of course would stand in as the referee for the match between the two while the rest of the Maple family sat in the stands with May quite obviously sitting closer to Ash’s side.

“Trainers ready!” Norman called. When he noticed that both young men did not really provide a further acknowledgement than a grunt he brought his hand down. “Trainers start! Send out your pokemon!”

Drew smirked condescendingly at Ash and the Pikachu resting on his shoulder.  “I will go first…you are going to need all the help you can get!” With that Drew tossed two pokeballs into the middle of the field. “Roserade! Masquerain! Wipe this challenger off the floor.” Roserade appeared in a flourish of petals and Masquerain appeared while flapping it’s wings in an intimidating manner.

Ash grinned slightly…’Giving me the advantage was the wrong move but hey if you are stupid enough to let me plan ahead why not take it?’ With that he withdrew two pokeballs and threw them into the field. “Arcanine! Pidgeot! Show them defeat!” Arcanine appeared with a roar that reverberated through the walls and Pidgeot appeared with a screech.

Even Drew was briefly rethinking providing his challenger the type advantage of allowing him to know his first two pokemon. Unfortunately for Drew’s pokemon both of Ash’s pokemon had super effective attacks against his own but that did not mean he did not have some tricks up his sleeve.

“Roserade! Start this off with stun spore! Masquerain Hydro pump and hit that Arcanine to take it out!” He grinned as Roserade started to shake it’s arms sending spores into the air towards Ash’s pokemon. All the while Masquerain drew back before opening its mouth and blew out a steady stream of water towards Arcanine.

“Arcanine counter hydro pump with Fire blast! Pidgeot blow those spores back the way they came with gust!” His pokemon quickly complied with his order. Pidgeot’s gust blew the spores back towards the bug and grass type pokemon as the giant bird took to the air. Arcanine’s fire blast met the hydro pump in the middle cancelling one another out in a blast of steam.

“Masquerain quickly aqua jet!” The giant bug became enveloped in a body of water as it used that water to slam into Arcanine’s side. The giant lion dog yelped in pain from the super effective attack at that hit him. The giant dog landed on his feet despite the strong attack and did not look any worse for the wear.

“Now Roserade! Hit that Pidgeot with magical leaf!” Drew yelled at his main pokemon.

Ash groaned from the hit Arcanine took. He needed to end that Roserade before his Arcanine was taken down. “Arcanine extreme speed into aerial ace! Take Roserade down in one hit! Pidgeot keep that Masquerain busy! Air slash!” Without further prodding the giant lion dog disappeared from the battlefield before suddenly appearing in front of Roserade and slammed the flower pokemon into the air. Prior to the Roserade being able to recover, Arcanine disappeared again before reappearing in midair and hitting the airborne grass type to the ground with a devastating slash.

Ash was about to grin when he heard Drew order Masquerain to hit Arcanine with another hydro pump full power. He watched helplessly as Arcanine took a full hit from hydro pump and promptly fainted next to the now down and out Roserade.

Drew had sacrificed Masquerain in order to take down Arcanine as a moment later Pidgeot’s super effective air slash brought the bug pokemon to the ground with swirls. Drew growled out as he returned his two pokemon to his one. Even worse the Pidgeot did not even appear to be touched.

“Flygon! Absol! Finish him now!” The large ground dragon pokemon that looked more like a dragon fly appeared next to the doomsday pokemon that stood next to the dragon.

Ash grinned slightly as he held up Pidgeot’s pokeball. “Good work Pidgeot return for now!” He recalled the giant bird before throwing out his fresh duo to meet Drew’s. “Go! Lucario! Sceptile!”

The two appeared in a flash of light both sizing up their opponents as Lucario subcounciously moved to engage the dark type and Sceptile was more than happy engaging the dragon type.

Drew growled slightly under his breath. ‘Just how many of these fully evolved pokemon does this kid have? I was expecting to have some trouble but this is ridiculous.’  He thought a moment before a smile came to his lips “Absol! Use psycho cut on Lucario! Flygon use faint attack on Sceptile!” He yelled out to his pokemon.

Ash grunted slightly as he ordered his own pokemon. “Lucario! Counter! Sceptile take the hit and use bullet seed on Flygon to force it to retreat!”

Flygon swooped in and disappeared before Sceptile could do anything the giant dragon fly dragon type appeared to Sceptile’s right and hit the forest pokemon with the dark type attack. Sceptile flinched slightly before retaliating with a wide spread bullet speed.

Drew grimaced at the scene before him, mad at himself for under estimating his enemy once again.

He turned his attention to the other battle and watched in delight as the fighting type got nailed by Absol’s psychic horn only to watch as Lucario grabbed the horn right as the attack finished and pummeled his Absol into the ground.

The four pokemon jumped back to their respective sides. All four were panting out of the four Flygon and Sceptile seemed to be in the best shape but that was about to change.

“Absol! Hit Lucario again with psycho cut!” Drew knew one last hit and Lucario would probably be down for the fight…it wasn’t like his pokemon were any type of push overs then again Ash’s pokemon also seemed to be highly trained. “It’s all over Ash! I respect your power but I wasn’t given the position of Ranger for nothing!”

Ash simply smiled as Absol came running in when the dark type was almost on top of Lucario he yelled out to his jackal pokemon. “Now Lucario use extreme speed intercept with close combat!” Lucario swept in past Absol’s guard and swung his fists in close hitting the doomsday pokemon in quick succession before Absol’s glowing horn could gore Lucario.

The jackal pokemon finished his devastating close combat attack with a vicious kick to the face. Absol went flying back into the opposite wall.

Norman watched Absol a moment as the dark type attempted to get up before falling back to the ground with a grunt. ‘Well shit I never expected Ash to be able to defeat any of Drew’s pokemon let alone be able to take out three of Drew’s pokemon while only losing one.’ Norman thought before calling the pokemon out. “Absol is unable to battle.”

Drew nearly screamed in frustration…how could this second rate trainer manage to put him in such a position. “Flygon hyperbeam! Now on Lucario!”

Flygon moved to comply and turned its head towards Lucario before a ball of energy formed in its mouth. A moment later it let loose a devastating hyper beam attack in an attempt to at least take out the tired out fighting type. There was no way Drew was going to go down 3 to 1.

Ash noted that his Lucario was still recovering from pushing himself to take out Absol. “Sceptile! Intercept that hyper beam with giga impact! Punch through with dragon claw right into Flygon.”

Sceptile smirked before gathering energy around himself and quickly flying towards the hyper beam attack. Sceptile used the momentum from his giga impact to cut through the power of hyper beam with his dragon claw.

Flygon was too busy recovering from the high energy attack to do anything but sit there and take the dragon claw attack.

“Gon.” The dragon fly wilted to the ground under the assault before swirls replaced his eyes signaling that the dragon fly had passed out under the stress of releasing the hyper beam attack and then getting hit by the super effective attack.

Norman smirked slightly at seeing the Ranger get taken down a peg. Drew had a lot to learn and though Norman did not always mind the young man he did have an issue with his arrogance. Raising his hand before yelling out, Norman shouted loud enough for both competitors to hear. “Flygon is unable to continue! Drew is out of pokemon, Ash is thereby declared the winner of this bout.”

Looking back to the young man he saw something that triggered his memory. The young man was high fiving the Pikachu that still sat on his shoulder before congratulating his two pokemon before returning them to their respective pokeballs. All of a sudden he remembered. ‘An unassuming young man that always had a Pikachu on his shoulder. A team of highly trained pokemon that could shrug off hits that should have killed a lesser pokemon in one hit…this is who Whitney spoke of when she was talking about the Rocket Wars.’

Norman barely heard his wife calling out to him to see if he needed her to run to the house to grab a balance badge. In fact he just stood there trying to get around the implications of having the Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar in his gym.

The gym leader managed to shake himself out of his stupor before flashing a smile to his wife. “Thanks dear but I have one on me!”

Norman studied the younger man as he walked up to him and presented the Balance badge. “Good work you truly deserve this bade. You showed that you are really in touch with your pokemon.”

The dark haired trainer scratched the back of his head as he accepted the Balance badge from Norman. “Thanks…” Ash looked up when he suddenly heard a squeal of excitement.

“Gah!” Ash grunted from the sudden impact of May latching his the side of his body.

“You did it you did it you did it!” May jabbered at a mile a minute in her excitement. Not even noticing her father’s pensive look at the physical interaction his daughter had initiated.

“May.” Adopting a warning tone, Norman was about to come closer to physically remove his daughter from the young trainer that she was currently strangling in her excitement. If there was one thing Norman did not want, it was to accidently set Ash off. The move to remove his daughter was cut short by the intervention of his wife.

“Norman dear I need you to help clean the dishes!” A knowing smile crossed Caroline’s face. “That means now.”  

 

A/N :

. Norman and Ash are going to have a talk about certain things from Ash’s past. Brock will join the group. Max may or may not join I don’t know let me know what you think. I had debated making Norman kinda a dick about things as well but I realized that Drew totally covered the jackass role. I did change the end part of the battle to keep a May/Drew option open. Other than that Jessie and James will make an appearance somewhere near the end of the chapter or early next chapter. Drew will be gone for a while and other than that I will try to fit in a pokemon battle or two to keep the people that like battling appeased. Anyway let me know what you think or just favorite and follow either way I don’t mind. Only thing I ask is that you vote on the polls up on my page.


	5. Petalburg Pressure

A/N: Well onto Chapter 5. I believe I will keep Max on for Petelburg Forest and into Rustboro City. If he works out great and he will continue on with the group. If I really don’t enjoy writing him and can’t find a use with him he will split from the group there and may make some minor appearances later. I had to go back and rewrite certain parts of this chapter a few time as they just were not coming out like I wanted them to.

Just an FYI Gengar is leading in the polls by a vote for the 6th pokemon with Dusknoir right behind him. I will be closing the poll after I start to write the next chapter since I will need the pokemon then.

 

Chapter 5 – Petalburg Pressure

 

Petalburg Gym –

 

Ash looked up just in time to see Flygon returning in a beam of red light. He stood there with Norman studying him while Drew walked up to the dark haired trainer.

“Well I suppose you have earned the right to escort May…but this isn’t over. If I hear you get her into any sort of trouble, I will find you and make you suffer.” The green haired trainer informed Ash snidely.

Ash just raised an eyebrow. “I wipe the floor with you and you are threatening me?”

Drew flicked his hair before addressing Ash in his normal haughty manner. “You do not have the capabilities or the experience I have received in my training to become a Ranger. So once more Ash let me spell it out you will fuck up. When you do I will be there to catch May.” He flashed a grin towards the Ash with the statement.

Feeling his eye starting to twitch ever so slightly, Ash felt his hands starting to go numb by how tight his fists were starting to clench together. The only thing stopping Ash from hammering the little twerp in the mouth was that May was currently still nearby. As much as Ash wanted to he did not want to start a real fight in Norman’s gym, especially after Caroline’s exquisite dinner. Ash managed to control himself enough to shoot a cocky smirk towards Drew. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Grunting in annoyance regarding Ash’s nonchalant response, Drew flicked his hair again before turning away. ‘Damn arrogant asshole comes in here and thinks he is the big hero just because he beat me.’ His thoughts darkened briefly before he covered up his annoyance with his normal arrogant attitude. “Well May good luck with Mr. Ketchum. I know you will need it if you plan on traveling with this dunderhead..” The green haired trainer waved to May.  “Call me when you need help and you will. I will be at your side in a moment’s notice.”

“Like I’ll need your help.” May grumbled in response. Crossing her arms and in a childish display, May stuck her tongue out at Drew.

“Oh you will darling and believe me I will be there for you like always.” Shooting May a cocky grin, Drew meandered to the entrance before throwing his arm up in a wave. “See ya Mr. Maple.”

Ash’s glare continued to linger on the gym’s entrance before May drew his attention away with her excited yelling.

“I knew you’d take him! You’re the strongest trainer I’ve ever met! See!” May bodily tackled Ash in an attempt to prove he could easily hold her up. Unfortunately the unexplained tackle caused Ash to grunt as he lost his balance and tipped over onto the floor. “Ahh!” He managed to eke out as his hands clawed at the air.

Ash groaned slightly from the impact as he found himself staring into May’s eyes. The girl was still hugging him around his middle and grinning like a mad man. A slight blush came across his face as Ash attempted to come up with words but his voice failed him. The two just laid there for a moment subconsciously that was until Caroline interrupted. “Well isn’t that so cute. You two remind me of Norman and I at your age.”

The two split apart instantly both blushing beat red causing Norman to laugh aloud. “I don’t think you were nearly as forward as May was dear.” The blue haired man flashed his wife a smile before leaning over to kiss her, ignoring Max as the younger Maple made gagging sounds in the back ground.

Ash had managed to find his feet first and found himself offering his hand to May. He pulled May up to her feet before they pulled apart quickly still blushing from earlier it returned with a vengeance. “Umm Thanks…” May ventured as she felt unsure how to proceed from here.

Luckily for the both of them Max interrupted. He came in front of Ash with a disconcerting smile on his face. “You are the coolest trainer ever! I can’t believe you beat Drew while only losing one pokemon.”

Ash rubbed the back of his head while laughing nervously. “Well…” He was interrupted for any further comment when Max pulled out his advanced dex. “I record every battle I see. Now I have some pointers for you on your form and commands. Let’s start with your…” He would have continued probably for hours if Norman had not interrupted.

“Max I am sure you will have more than enough time to talk with Ash before he leaves. How about you help your sister pack for her travels, I have to talk to Ash in private.”

“And after that you still have to help with the dishes dear.” Shooting her husband a smirk, Caroline crossed her arms over her chest with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t think you can weasel your way out of them because you need to talk to Ash.”

“Yes Dear…” Norman nodded obediently before he turned towards Ash. “Alright young man let’s get back to my office before Caroline decides I need to do dishes now.”

Caroline shepherded her children back towards the house. May had intercepted Pikachu before the little yellow rodent could make it to Ash.

Ash managed to shoot a smirk towards Pikachu reveling in his pokemon’s predicament. “Pikaaa!!!” Pikachu attempted to escape May’s hold but she only snuggled into the little pokemon tighter. Ash followed Norman out of the arena area and into Norman’s office still snickering over Pikachu’s look of betrayal. Ash took a seat in front of Norman’s desk that the gym leader had indicated to before shutting his door.

Both men studied each other for a moment in silence before the gym leader decided to speak up since Ash obviously was not going to. “So…I am sure you think I am pulling you in here to read you the riot act about traveling with my daughter eh?” He raised an eyebrow towards the younger man.

Nodding slightly Ash braced himself for the doom and gloom the older man would undoubtedly inform him of if he hurt May. Of course Ash was not counting on Norman Maple knowing a bit more than expected about his past.

“While I probably could lay into you on traveling with May, I know that would be a pointless venture.” Norman glanced over at the door to make sure it was closed before continuing. “I doubt I could touch you even If I wanted to. My concern is what the Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar is doing in my gym and why are you agreeing to escort my daughter around Hoenn?”

He watched as the shock spread across the young man’s face. ‘Well at least I know this kid is pretty much the worst actor in the world.’ Norman kept himself from snorting in amusement over the matter.

Ash’s face went through disbelief, shock, and finally slid into a cold mask. The one he used for any serious league business. “Mr. Maple I would like to know where you came across such information.” Ash paused a moment deciding if he should go all in or not with the man. ‘May already knows part of it as is and Norman obviously knows who I am.’ His pondering though was interrupted by Norman.

“Despite the difference in the regions you realize that gym leaders talk. Our family also happened to start off in Johto and I still retain some connections from my old gym in Goldenrod City.” Norman paused a moment waiting to see if Ash got the connection.

He grinned when he saw Ash’s eyes widen. “Whitney took over when we moved to the Hoenn region. Prior to taking over she was my apprentice and we still catch up over the video phone. Really she was like another daughter to me.” Sighing a little Norman continued. “She mentioned to me once, that if I ever see a black haired man that has an exceptionally powerful Pikachu that rides on his shoulder, to pray I am not on the wrong side of the fight.”

Ash sighed when Norman revealed where he got the information from. ‘Gee thanks Whitney….try to make it sound less like I am a death incarnate.’ He took a moment to reflect on how he got himself into these messes…normally through no fault of his own…well normally at least. ‘If Lance only knew he would really feel bad for me…possibly even give me a medal over the situations I get into.’

“I did not realize Whitney still spoke with her old gym leader. Then again I do not have the same connection with the Johto gym leaders since I was predominately posted in the Kanto region.” Ash motioned for Norman to continue. At the moment there really was not much he could do other than to see where Norman was going with this.

The gym leader took Ash’s motioning of his hand as confirmation to continue. “When I first saw you I knew someone had mentioned something about you. When you high fived your Pikachu it all clicked. So once again my main concern is what in hell you are doing, letting my daughter travel with you.” The man was after all first and foremost a family man. “Second of course is what you are doing in Hoenn.”

“Well the official story is that I am just a traveler from Kanto.” Ash decided to go all in with the man. The whole point was to make contact with gym leaders about the terrorist groups anyway. “Unofficially I am here on the behest of the Kanto League. Word has been received that surviving members of Team Rocket from the Cinnabar and Lavender campaigns escaped and made it to Hoenn. Our contacts indicate they are joining up with this Team Magma and some other group in Hoenn. I am here to assess the risk to Kanto. I have already identified one group and linked them back to the people kidnapping the female trainers. From what I have been able to put together so far these goons are selling the girls into the human sex trade ring.”

Grabbing a file from one of the cabinets, Norman set it down in front of Ash. “I didn’t want May to become a statistic which is why I never let her travel far after the disappearances started. I did have another reason though.” With that he spread out the papers in front of Ash so the trainer could see the information Norman had collected.

Norman came around the desk and leaned over the desk and started to leaf through the information. “My gym members and I have caught some low level thugs trying to make a foot hold in Petalburg. There seems to be two different groups. Team Magma as you stated earlier is a group that seems to favor fire, ground, and rock types in battle. From what I have gathered they are looking for some way to expand Hoenn’s land. Their end game from what I have gathered is to connect Hoenn to the islands we have and turn Hoenn into a fully connected continent. I can’t really speculate where they are going from there.” Norman shrugged a little with that.

Ash nodded while looking over the information. He turned back to Norman before continuing with his train of thought. “Well I can’t say their plan sounds like it would threaten Hoenn as it is. Do you have anything about the other group?”

“Unfortunately the information we have from the other team which calls itself Team Aqua appears to be much worse. They plan on expanding the sea…but not in Hoenn. They are searching for something and they plan on harnessing it. They will then subjugate Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh and Unova. If a nation does not comply, Aqua, will use whatever they are looking for to essentially sink that entire continent.”

 Ash took a moment to review the information Norman had provided him before posing a question to the gym leader. “This appears to be something to look into. I will have to continue to investigate. This information certainly helps. If you have any further information will you let me know?” Ash slowly pushed himself up and out of the chair a smile slipping back onto his face as he addressed Norman. “To answer your question as to why May is traveling with me, well she kinda made me do it.” He finished with a sheepish grin as he scratched the back of his head.

Placing the files back into the filing cabinet, Norman made sure to lock the cabinet back up and placed the key back into his jeans. “Just one more thing Ash…there has been some talk that some of the Hoenn gym leaders may be compromised.”

“Compromised?” Ash queried already getting a bad feeling about this. ‘Crap this is just like what occurred in Kanto.’ Back during the Rocket wars not all the gym leaders fought against Team Rocket. The Western portion of Kanto firmly in the League control barring of course Giovanni, while most of the Eastern gym leaders either joined Rocket or played both sides against the middle like Sabrina had to protect her city.

Ash was interrupted by his thoughts by Norman directing Ash out of the room. “I unfortunately cannot confirm which gym leaders that may be compromised. Regarding May…just make sure you take care of her.” Norman smiled before leading Ash out the door. “We should probably get back before Caroline comes to drag us back to the house and I need to do the dishes.”

 

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Maple House – First Floor

 

 

“So May do you have everything for your trip?” Caroline questioned as she started to clean up dinner. “I am assuming that you two will be staying the night?” She noticed that the Pikachu she had been holding onto on the way over was now on her shoulder.

“Oh man! If he stays over I can review his battle with him and ask him how he trains his pokemon.” Max declared while playing with his advanced pokedex. It had an expanded memory, larger camera and sensor along with expanded battle simulation capabilities. “I bet I can even put together a superior training regimen for him that will make up for the weaknesses in his current methods.”

 “Umm…well I don’t really know…one of his friends is supposed to be coming in to the port but I don’t know when.” May shrugged a little answering her mother first as she continued to pack her bag. A glint entered her eye as she rounded on Max next. “And Max…shut up and leave Ash alone. I swear if you drive him off I will kill you” She finished her sentence by shaking her fist at her younger brother.

Caroline smiled at her two children before gently reprimanding her younger child. “Max don’t harass your sister’s boyfriend too much.” Giggling slightly when May’s face turned bright red she went back to work…her job as a mother complete for the moment.

“Mom…” May muttered as she sent her mother a glare which only caused Caroline to laugh even louder. “He is not my boyfriend we are just traveling partners.” She grumbled knowing her mother was having too much fun at her expense to stop.

“Whatever you say dear!” Caroline responded with a giggle as she picked up the ketchup bottle.

May noted that Pikachu’s ears went up and he suddenly perked up upon the appearance of the ketchup. “Hmm what’s up Pikachu?” May asked the little electric rodent.

“Pika!” Pikachu leapt off of May’s shoulder and intercepted the bottle of ketchup in Caroline’s hand. The little rodent tackling it to the floor and not a moment later was drinking copious amounts of the condiment. “Chhhhhhaaaa.” Pikachu groaned contently as it rubbed its stomach after gorging itself on the ketchup.

The Maple family all blinked a bit in confusion none quite sure what to say. “Well…he seems to enjoy ketchup…” Caroline smiled as she continued the cleanup leaving May and Max to just nod in agreement.

Just as the family was finishing up their respective chores they heard the door open followed by laughter. “And that is how I managed to defeat Pryce with only a Lickilicky and a Hoothoot.” Norman entered the room still grinning with Ash following behind staring at Norman…not in admiration but questioning the man’s sanity.

“Dear stop harassing Ash with your old trainer stories…I am sure Ash would rather get to bed. Besides you still have dishes to do!” Caroline smiled as she stopped her husband. Ash shot May’s mother a smile in thanks. Caroline gave Ash a wink before directing her attention to their guest. “Ash what time do you have to meet your friend Brock tomorrow?”

“Friend?...” Ash queried while looking at Caroline in confusion wondering how she knew Brock’s name. “Oh yeah! I forgot about him….” He smiled slightly while rubbing the back of his head never noticing the room going dead silent.

“Kaaaaa….” Pikachu could not believe his trainer’s incompetence sometimes…or inability to remember anything important.

“Ash Ketchum I cannot believe you already forgot about your friend!” May yelled in disbelief. “How can you even call yourself a friend if you forget he is coming into port tomorrow after Gary reminded you earlier today!”

The younger Maple boy pushed his glasses up with his index finger as he smirked at Ash’s predicament before commenting. “Well if this is what I can look forward to when I have a girlfriend I think I will pass thank you very much. Though now I know why May never had a boyfriend before…her passion level is way too close to the surface for any guy to stick around her.”

Ash and May turned bright red momentarily. May a moment later rounded on Max leaving Ash to sigh in relief as he leaned against the wall. Pikachu and the older Maples simply looked on in amusement. “What did you say runt! I will bury you!”

“See this is the exact reason May! Prime example right here!” Max stated his voice quivering a little in fear as he took off up the stairs towards the sanctuary of his room.

A moment later before the brunette could pursue her little brother, Caroline had grabbed her daughter by the ear…causing her to come to a jarring halt. “Dear if you two are going to get up early tomorrow you better get to bed…and please don’t kill your brother.” She ended with a smile.

May grumbled a little but looking at the clock she did see it was almost 11. If they were going to get up early in the morning to meet Ash’s friend they would probably have to get to bed soon. “Ummm Mom? Should I take Ash up to the guest room?”

Caroline nodded. “Yes please take Ash up to the guest room. I have it set up already!” She smiled as she watched May show Ash up the stairs before calling out. “Remember separate rooms!” Caroline giggled when she heard a crash at the top of the stairs and glanced at her husband who had an amused look on his face.

“Dear you are positively evil.” Norman grinned before leaning in and kissing his wife. “I remember why I love you during times like this.”

 

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Maple House – Second Floor

 

 

“Night May. Thanks for showing me up to the guest room.” Ash sent a smile towards the girl as he settled his backpack down by the bed side.

May smiled a little glad to be away from her parents and their teasing for the moment. “Good night Ash…ummm you will be alright tonight right?” May thought back to the night in Oldale when she was woken up by his screams in the middle of the night.

He nodded a bit while kicking his hiking boots off. “No worries May I will be fine I promise.”

May nodded a little hesitant before leaving to go to her room and closing the door behind her. ‘I hope he really is alright…’ She thought as she got herself ready for bed. May made sure to leave her back pack and other traveling gear in a pile by the door where she could easily locate it in the morning.

The black haired trainer just shook his head as he laid his head back down on the bed and proceeded to stare up at the ceiling. Pikachu had curled into a ball on top of Ash’s pillow. Other than the Professor Oak’s and Professor Birch’s, this was the first time he had actually gotten a chance to sleep in an actual house. Mostly Ash found himself sleeping outside or in a poke center for the night if he was lucky.

Drifting off to sleep, Ash could not help but let his mind wander back to the past. The nightmares of Cinnabar were always there right below the surface.

 

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Ash’s nightmares –

 

_Moltres let loose another torrent of flame off to the North as the giant fire bird was directed at Mewtwo’s behest. ‘It seems that Mewtwo has really taken to killing Rockets with Moltres.’ He smirked as he continued onwards. He knew his pokemon were in the area somewhere. Salamence and Charizard had obviously destroyed the Dragonite problem. Those two had taken off North West to back up Moltres._

_He withdrew the sword that had been across his back as he ran into another Rocket contingent. “DIE!” The two rocket members in the back literally lose their heads before the remaining five knew what was occurring._

_“Looks like a Ranger just took on more than he expected.” Ash’s next swing was blocked by a huge forearm covered in metal. The giant of a man grinned down at Ash as he flicked his blonde shock of hair. “Men I will take care of this one myself. You go to reinforce the South side, I will join you momentarily.”_

_Ash’s face contorted as he pressed the blade down harder onto the man’s forearm. The blonde man just laughed harder. “Well it looks like the baby Ranger wants to fight for real. Then prepare yourself for Lt. Surge!” The Blonde man yelled his other elbow coming around and slamming through Ash’s guard._

_Flying backwards the way he came, Ash quickly twisted the sword and stabbed it into the ground. Even using the sword as an anchor he felt himself slide back a few more feet as he managed to catch himself…barely. ‘Well this makes life nice and easy. I just need to find Koga and Giovanni then I can have the complete set.’ He thought briefly._

_“RAIIIIIIIIIII!” Ash barely had a moment’s notice before he brought his knee up in front of him. Managing to catch Surge’s Raichu in the face with the flat side of the blade before he spun using his sword to propel him, Ash’s foot flew into the stunned Raichu sending it back towards Surge. “I have no time to play with your pokemon Surge. I’m going to fucking kill you!”_

_Surge laughed at the pint sized Ranger. “Kid you got balls I’ll say that…even managed to stop Raichu but…that won’t stop me from ending your life!” With that Surge charged Ash once more. The Electric type gym leader brought both his hands down towards Ash in a hammer fist. The young Ranger barely managed to roll out of the way. He pulled his sword along with him attempting to cut Surge up the middle as he rolled to the side._

_Once more Surge caught the blade with the metal bracers he wore. A grin spread across Surge’s face as he turned to face the smaller man that had withstood not two attacks from him without wincing. “So the baby can take some hits. Well little man…I hate to cut this short but I can’t play with you any longer. Raichu! Finish him with iron tail!”_

_“RAI! RAI RAI!” The giant electric mouse’s long whip like tail started to glow silver on the thunderbolt shaped tip. Raichu whipped the tail around quickly attempting to cut off Ash’s head with one swing. Ash managed to bring his sword up to block and deflect the tail._

_Raichu grinned for a moment before reversing the direction of its tail and bringing it back around towards the Ranger. Surge grinned in triumph but it turned to surprise as Raichu’s tail was intercepted by a Pikachu using its own iron tail. “THE FUCK! You little cheat!” Surge screamed. ‘Now I know who this is…I remember now.’  “Raichu it’s that baby Pikachu from when you first evolved. Time for a rematch…smash it!”_

_“Pikachu you’re on your own to handle Raichu!” Ash growled as he glanced out of the corner of his eye. The Pikachu and its evolution had started out an all-out war in an attempt to comply with their master’s orders. Surge’s Raichu attempted to crush Pikachu with psychical attacks while Pikachu would duck around the larger rodent and tear into its sides before jumping away from any retaliation._

_Ash managed to refocus on Surge just in time too. He leaned back out of the way of Surge’s punch before he pivoted around under Surge’s guard and smashed into his solar plexus with his elbow. He felt the older man crumple in on himself from the blow. Dancing out of the way of Surge’s retaliatory strike, Ash landed in a crouched position a few feet out of Surge’s reach._

_The blonde man coughed a few flecks of blood coming out the sides of his mouth as attempted to breathe deeply which only ended up in him shuddering from the pain. His free hand grabbed his side in pain as he glared at Ash. “Fucking twat…you can land a hit that’s for sure! My question is can you take one!”_

_Ash did not have a chance to even counter. One moment Surge was in front of him the next he felt one of Surge’s hands wrap around his neck and lift him into the air. The arm with the metal bracer bashed Ash’s sword from his hand. Even enraged as he was over losing Leaf it could only go so far. He started to struggle for air as Surge started to squeeze Ash’s throat._

_“You did good baby…but I am going to tear out your optics!” (A/N: Bonus points if you can guess the movie) Surge laughed as Ash’s hands started to claw at his one hand gripping the younger man’s throat. The electric gym leader brought his other hand came up and he started to dig his fingers into Ash’s eyes._

_Ash tried to scream in pain but he already felt the fingers digging into his sockets. Surge’s grip was too hard to even try to shake his head away from the man’s vicious attack, block spots started to cloud into Ash’s vision._

_‘Ash…your knives…’ Right as he was blacking out he felt Mewtwo’s voice in his head. Not stopping to think on how or where Mewtwo came across the information, Ash went for his emergency knives he always kept on his person. Half blind from Surge’s attempts to rip out his eyes and barely conscious, Ash managed to grab a knife from belt and mostly through luck stabbed it into Surge’s arm holding his throat._

_“FUCK, you little Fucking shit!” Surge hissed in pain as he dropped Ash and stumbled back from the Ranger. He grabbed the knife lodged in his arm and ripped it out. Surge looked down at his bleeding arm before looking over at Ash who was currently recovering._

_Ash fell to the ground the black spots receding from his vision as he continued to take in huge breathes of air. His voice was still raspy from his heavy breathing. “Fuck you Surge. I hope you enjoyed your time with Rocket because you are about to take an early retirement.” He managed to pull himself to his feet still breathing in ragged huge gasps._

_“Well the baby has claws. I think I am going to use your skin as a nice blanket for Raichu after I rip it off of you.” Surge grinned before slipping in towards Ash. His hands were about to come down on the kid’s shoulders and lift Ash off the ground again._

_Ash slipped in under Surge’s guard again; quickly producing two jagged hunting knives from his belt he drove them both into Surge’s chest. He continued forward pushing them down to the hilt and reversing Surge’s charge he slammed the giant of a man into the ground onto his back. “Don’t worry Surge, you won’t be lonely for long, Giovanni and Koga will join you shortly.”_

_Surge only had a moment to attempt to cough out a reply before Ash viciously stomped on the man’s throat until it collapsed. It left Surge to gurgle on the blood collecting in his collapsed throat as he attempted to get air that would not come._

_Taking one last look at the expiring Surge, Ash turned to Raichu and Pikachu to find Pikachu standing triumphantly over Raichu’s corpse. The orange rodent’s entrails littered the area around it spilling out from the pokemon’s sides. “Pika!”_

_“Good work Pikachu! Hang with me a little longer…we are going to wipe out Koga and Giovanni.” Ash grinned as the little yellow mouse jumped off of Raichu’s corpse still trailing blood as he jumped onto his trainer’s shoulder. “We’ll kill them all…they will burn for what they did to Leaf.” Ash whispered to his Pikachu. Both the pokemon and the man had grins on their faces that were bordering on mania from the blood lust that was surging through their respective veins. ‘Everyone will die. I will kill them all.’_

_The two members continued down the street killing any Rocket Teams they ran into. What they two did not realize was that even with Moltres burning the Rocket’s alive in the North, Lucario and Mewtwo holding the line in the middle, and Lance advancing along the Southern flank they were becoming cut off completely from any type of reinforcements._

 

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Maple House –

 

 

Ash woke up screaming. His eyes wildly darting around the room he noticed the morning light seeping in through the blinds. Groaning a little Ash realized he had been sweating profusely during his nightmare. “…Fuck…hope they didn’t hear that.” He picked himself up and decided to grab a quick shower before heading down to the docks to meet up with Brock. 

The moment he walked out the door in his towel he got a whiff of a delicious smell coming up from the kitchen downstairs. He felt his stomach grumble. “I hope Mrs. Maple is making another feast.” 

His thoughts on breakfast were waylaid when he heard a door opening nearby. He turned around only to turn bright red…May had been exiting her room also in only a towel that only covered down to her mid-thigh. Both trainers stood there frozen blushing like tomatoes.

May let out a little “Epp!” when she realized that she was standing in the hallway half naked in front of Ash…and that Ash was standing half naked in front of her as well. “Erm you can go first!” She managed to squeak out before retreating to her room and slamming the door.

 

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Maple House- Kitchen

Once again the Maple family had varying levels of disbelief over their face watching as Ash and May had “breakfast” or possibly a feast. The family was not quite sure. Pikachu was in the corner nursing another bottle of pilfered ketchup from the Maple’s fridge.

Finally the two tornados quieted before May’s mother coughed slightly bringing everyone out of their stupor. “You two should probably head down to the port now if you friend Brock is coming in this morning, he should be arriving on the next cruise ship in about twenty minutes.” Caroline smiled as she watched the chaos ensue.

Ash and May hurriedly grabbed their backpacks and were just making it down the stairs to find Max also fully packed and ready to go. The youngest Maple smirked at the two while pushing his glasses up off the edge of his nose. “If it is alright I want to come with you for a little while. I did not have enough time to provide you a proper training schedule.”

The younger boy waited for Ash to answer a smile on his face. ‘No way he can deny the need for my expertise from joining the journey!’

“No.” Ash said as he moved around the younger Maple and went into the kitchen to find Norman and Caroline. Luckily for Ash both were in the kitchen still taking care of the mess that May and Ash had left behind.

“Thanks for the dinner and breakfast Mrs. Maple it was fantastic!” Ash smiled. “Umm…sorry though for possibly eating you out of house and home.” He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. He was surprised when Mrs. Maple approached him and brought him into a gentle hug. For a moment Ash reveled in the hug, ever since his mom had been taken by Team Rocket no really hugged him.

“Don’t worry about it for a moment Ash. It was nice meeting such a nice responsible young man especially one that enjoys my cooking so thoroughly.” Caroline smiled brightly at the younger man before disengaging from the hug and patting the young man on the shoulder. “Just make sure to take care of May and bring her back safe.”

Ash nodded his face completely serious…for the moment. “Don’t worry Mrs. Maple I will keep May safe while she is with me.” Caroline nodded once before a sly grin spread across her features. Poor May was blushing something awful behind Ash not that he could see.

Norman shot a smirk at his blushing daughter before pulling Ash off to the side. “If you don’t mind taking Max with you…just through the Petalburg Forest since you are heading that way anyway. I would appreciate it. After you get to Rustboro City he should be fine on his own.”

“What!” May practically growled upon hearing her father. Behind her she heard Max whooping for joy as he charged into the kitchen and hugged his father.

Ash nodded a little bit at Norman’s request. ‘Just my luck…conned into watching May already and now I have to make sure Max is safe. Lucky Brock focuses so much on defensive maneuvers in case we get into anything.’ He grumbled in his head. On the outside though Ash just kept a smile plastered on his face. “Sure thing he can come along with us through Petalburg Forest.”

Receiving another thankful smile from Caroline he decided to step outside and wait for the two Maples to say goodbye to their parents in private. “I’ll be outside waiting.” With that he gave a final wave to Norman and Caroline before stepping out the door.

“Alright kids…I want you both to be careful. Listen to everything Ash tells you to do. I don’t care how odd it sounds. He will be able to keep you safe and if he is anything to go by, his friend Brock will be just as able.” Norman kept his tone serious for a moment before Norman took both his kids in to a hug under each arm. “Remember I will be proud of both of you no matter what you do.”

Both kids smiled and returned their dad’s hug before their mother stepped in. Caroline first straightened Max’s hair. “Remember not to bother your sister too much.” She gave Max a bone crushing hug before turning to her daughter. “Now remember dear…make sure to use protection with your boyfriend. I don’t want to be a young grandmother.” She gave her daughter a serious look before she giggled. “Then again maybe I wouldn’t mind being a young grandmother. You think your mom could pull off being a sexy grandmother like in those TV shows you watch?” Caroline winked at her daughter.

“Ma…Ma…Mother!” May hissed as her face turned beat red before looking around to make sure Ash was not nearby. This only caused her mother to laugh harder. Norman just shook his head in mock disappointment.

“Dear you really are evil.” Norman commented before he shot a small smile towards his daughter. “Just make sure you don’t make me a grandfather too early.” He grinned when his daughter went from beat red to almost steaming.

May grumbled under her breath. “Have you two ever heard of parenting…I need to get you a book on it.” She was silenced when her mother hugged her once again.

“Oh honey I just want to see you happy and I don’t think I have ever seen you so taken with a young man.” Caroline hugged her daughter once more. “You call me if you need to talk and remember I love you no matter what.”

Ash looked up when he saw the youngest Maples appear out the front door. Both of them were bright red from their parent’s version of goodbye. “Hey May and Max! Are you guys ready to get down to the harbor?”

With a final wave to the older Maples the small group headed down to the Petalburg City sea port.

 

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Petalburg City – Port

Ash, May, and Max managed to make it to the port just as the cruise ship from the Kanto region had started unloading. “So which one is Brock?” Max asked as he looked around trying to identify the newest member of the group.

Ash smiled as he spotted a spikey haired man stepping off the ship. He was a tall man with a tan complexion. His face seemed to be in a permanent scrunch giving him the impression of being a severe individual. He wore what appeared to be dark brown cargo pants and a dark orange shirt with a brown hiking vest. “There he is! Brock down here!” He yelled out to his friend and started waving his hand.

 

A/N: Alright I did not quite get the group out of Petalburg City like I had planned. Next chapter we will have the first introduction with Brock. Then they will head out of the city and into the Petalburg Woods. The woods may take a chapter or two but I don’t plan on keeping them in there for three chapters like Petalburg City turned into. Hope you enjoyed and I will try to update next weekend or sooner.

 

 


	6. The Petalburg Woods - Overgrow

A/N:  Ninja edited 12/21/13.

 

Chapter 6 – The Petalburg Woods - Overgrow

Sounds of battle interrupted the normal silence of the Petalburg woods. All around smoke poured out of the tree tops and fires blazed across trees and the underlying grass. Hyper beams ripped up the ground and weapons clashed. Wild pokemon scattered to get out of the area before they became caught up in the growing fight that spread across the Petalburg Woods. The Taillow took flight and winged away from the area. Oddish and other grass types along with the bug types disappeared through the undergrowth.

“Steelix! Iron Defense!” Brock shouted out to his Steelix while blocking another blow from Cassidy with his bo staff. The giant steel snake curled itself in around Max and the young girl keeping both of the children safe from the Raticate that continually probed Steelix’s defenses for a way past the iron snake to the children.

“Don’t let that Raticate through!” Brock yelled out. He heard the roar from Steelix acknowledging his orders before turning back to Cassidy. This was not exactly what he expected In Hoenn when he got off of the cruise ship this morning. In fact running into Cassidy and Hutch was quite a surprise since last he heard they were both missing in action.

The golden haired woman smirked. “Well it has been a long time hasn’t it Brock. When was the last time we did this?” She ended her question with another attempt to get past Brock’s defenses. Her twin trench knives seeking to drive into his flesh she brought them in high and low to cut off any chance of blocking both.

Brock shuffled back while spinning his staff, he managed to deflect both blows before swinging his staff into her unguarded side, sending Cassidy into the tree line. “You know I thought you were dead, I forgot how much fun it was to use you as a punching bag!” Brock grinned momentarily taking a moment to observe the fight between Steelix and Raticate. Despite the size advantage his giant pokemon was forced to stay mostly stationary due to the children he was protecting. The giant rat continued to use hyper fang attacks on the Iron snake but luckily Steelix’s iron defense held fast.

Deciding he better provide Steelix some offensive power he took a moment to unclip another pokeball from his mag belt and threw it towards Steelix’s location. “Go! Golem! Help Steelix with Raticate he can’t attack while protecting those kids!”

Golem appeared in a burst of bright red light. The rock ball pokemon roared in acknowledgement as it tucked its arms and legs in and started a roll out attack. Brock watched his pokemon for a moment longer to make sure no further Rocket’s appeared. “I hope May and Ash are alright…” He muttered unsure how they were handling Botch and the grunts.

“Hn?” Brock muttered as suddenly the sun was blocked out above him. Cassidy had recovered and had used a nearby tree to come down at Brock from above. The tan ex-gym leader just managed to catch Cassidy’s trench knives again on his staff. He was barely able to deflect the ex-Rocket Member due to her bringing her full weight down behind the knives. “I would ask why you are going through all this trouble for a little girl but seeing as you just murdered that older woman in front of her I suppose I should just end this!”

Bringing his staff around in a quick spin he charged Cassidy who started to dance back from the flurry of strikes. What she could not dodge she deflected with her knives. “You are getting old Brocky boy...your movements are slowing down and since the League won’t put you out to pasture I will do it for them!” She came in quick driving up the middle right through Brock’s defenses.

 

 

Earlier that day –

Petalburg City Port –

 

 

Brock looked across the crowd attempting to find the source of the yell. Finally he spotted the young trainer. A smile came over his face as he became lost in thought. ‘It has been too long Ash…hold on a tic…’ His thoughts trailed off when he noticed the hottie standing by his friend. ‘Holy Shit! I am in love!’ A determined look came over his face as he rapidly made his way through the crowd.

“Over here Brock!” Ash yelled out to his longtime partner and friend as he waved his arm in a frantic motion to keep Brock zeroed in on the party. To be truthful he was excited to see Brock again. In the past few years the older man was one of the only constants in his life especially after losing Leaf. He appreciated Brock’s unique point of view when it came to life that was for sure.

Pikachu also assisted by climbing onto the top of Ash’s head and waved one of his paws as well. “Pika! Pi!”

Once he was sure that Brock had zeroed in on them, Ash dropped his arm and shot a smile towards his two traveling companions. “You guys are going to love Brock. He’s an excellent cook.” His gaze lingered on May with that comment.

“He only has one real fault.” Ash laughed a little as he rubbed the back of his head. The dark haired Ranger was about to continue on with his line of thought but unfortunately for him it was too late.

‘Almost there my beautiful…oh the sun and stars could not outshine her….no too simple for one so beautiful.’ Brock quickened his pace to a run when he broke through the crowd. A large smile had come over his face as he zeroed in on the small group.

‘Oh fucking hell…’ Ash’s last thought as his smile went to one of fear. He had seen that look before and knew he couldn’t stop what would occur next. May and Max just stood there with some confusion on their faces not really knowing what to expect of Ash’s new friend…unfortunately they found out a moment later.

The tanned man skidded to a halt as he dropped to his knees in front of May His hands gently cupped one of May’s in his own large hands. A large smile crossed his face as he looked up into the face of the beautiful girl…no angel in front of him. “You outshine the sun, the stars, and the galaxy above! Will you do the honor of being…no such a weak word…for you going on a date with me would be, beyond an honor for me! I will devote my life to your happiness and you will want for nothing my love!”

Brock took no notice of May’s discomfort as he worked on the words in his head. “Curse my mortal brain! It cannot comprehend such beauty of an angel.” He stared adoringly towards May. “That’s right my angel the look on your face…the hesitation I can see it you are worried my love is not strong enough?” Brock suddenly jumped to his feet. “My love is so strong I will recite a thousand love ballads right here and now!”

“…And complete flirt…” Ash muttered more to himself than anyone else. He noticed May’s discomfort over the whole ordeal. The young girl was turning red as Brock continued to recite poems of love…which slowly started to draw attention from the nearby crowd. Max did not appear to be helping either and in fact was enjoying May’s discomfort. 

Correcting his glasses the youngest Maple sent his blushing sister a smirk. “Well sis looks like once again you managed to attract another crazy. First Drew and his creepy flowers by your windows and now this guy reciting love poems in public.” Max just shook his head…he would never understand girls or what guys saw in his older sister.

“Alright Pikachu…think you can do a precision dissection?” He questioned the yellow rodent when he decided that they were drawing too much attention. “Pika!” The electric mouse grinned viciously before his red cheek sacs started to spark with electricity.

“Know that I will move the heavens to be with you my swee…” “CHU!!!!” A moment later a giant lightning bolt burst forth from Pikachu and hit Brock directly. Carefully controlling the current, the little mouse kept a positive feedback loop going between Brock and Pikachu, very careful to avoid the mistress of the ketchup.  

A smoking Brock finally let get of May’s hand…and promptly dropped over to the ground charred and smoking a little. Once again Pikachu showed off his technical skills by completely avoiding burning Brock’s clothing. “Pikaaaaaaaa….” The yellow pokemon grinned up at May.

“Thanks Pikachu…that was an experience.” May finally inspected her hand and was pleased to find that her glove was not even singed. She picked the Pikachu off the ground and brought him up into a hug with a smile. “You are the best Pikachu! Why not travel with me for a while.” She placed Pikachu up onto her shoulder with a smile.

Kneeling down over his friend he picked up one of Brock’s blackened arms and dragged him up to his feet. “Nice entrance Brock…really.” Ash muttered to Brock before setting the Rock Trainer upright. “Well Brock hope you had a nice voyage…I want you to meet Max and May Maple…they will be traveling with us for a while.” He pointed out the Maples before leaning in a little closer to Brock.

“Max Maple…the superior of the two…in fact I will one day be a Pokemon Master.” The young trainer paused in thought for a moment before a light bulb went off. “Hey aren’t you the old Pewter Gym Leader?”

“May Maple…and pay no attention to him.” May grumbled as she could not decide upon who she wanted to glare at more her brother or Brock. She settled on glaring at Brock and pushing her little brother. This seemed to satisfy her natural tendency of violence in response to being embarrassed or annoyed.

“Well as you know I am Brock!” The tall man smiled at the younger Maple. “I am always glad to see a fan of an old gym leader.”

Max smiled at the recognition. “So what are you doing in Hoenn? Not to mention what have you been doing since you left the gym? Last I heard you participated in the Rocket Wars in Kanto. I hope you have some awesome stories!”

Sidling over next to Brock and dropping his voice down to a whisper before speaking since the next topic was sensitive. “Not a word about the old days Brock-o. They know I was a Ranger but nothing more.” Leaning back he shot a smile towards the two Maples before bringing his volume up to normal levels. “Well you will have more than enough time to grill Brock on his goings on during our trip through Petalburg woods. May or Max would one of you like to lead the way?” Ash glanced between the two.

Max was about to step forward and offer up his navigational services…his pokedex had the most upgraded map software package available…but May beat him to it. “This way!”

May started walking off towards the Western portion of the city leaving the other three trainers to attempt to keep up.

Letting the two Maples take point Brock and Ash dropped back a far enough distance so that they would not be overheard by the two. Taking a quick glance around and deciding it was safe enough Brock motioned for Ash’s attention before posing his question. “So not that I am complaining about the company but where and why did you pick up these two?”

Ash coughed slightly before rubbing the back of his head. He pondered Brock’s question as he observed May ahead…she was rather cute wasn’t she. ‘Crap where the hell was that from…stay on point Ketchum.’ Grinning a little at Brock to cover up his inattention to Brock’s question, Ash finally answered the question. “Well...May kinda ended up forcing me to take her and Max is just with us through the forest. Their father is the gym leader of Petalburg and I am kinda doing it as a favor.”

The tanned trainer nodded at Ash’s answer. ‘Figures…Ash always manages to get himself into something.’ “Well I guess we will deal with anything that comes up. I mean how bad could the woods get anyway?” Brock laughed while looking over at Ash who flashed him a grin.

“Hopefully not too crazy but at the same time from what Norman told me I am hoping to stumble upon something. Worst comes to worst we can drop Max off at the next city and come back.” Ash then started to explain everything that Norman had told him to Brock so they were both on the same level.

Brock and Ash walked along in silence for a moment a moment before Brock punched Ash’s shoulder lightly. “Figures you would get angry at Gary overreact and almost blow everything.” He laughed at the younger man. “I still can’t ascertain why they sent you, good thing Brock is here to help you out.”

Shaking his head in disbelief at his old partner Ash just smirked. A pensive look came over his face and he glanced up to make sure the Maple siblings were still out of hearing range. “So any news on the home front I should be concerned about?”

“Hm…” Brock also glanced towards the siblings and contemplated for a bit. ‘Luckily everything seems quiet…almost too quiet but nothing Ash needs to worry about.’ “Well Ash to be honest nothing.” Then Brock grinned at Ash causing Ash to sweat drop a little. “But there is one thing I do want you to talk to you about.”

“And what is that?” Ash muttered…he had a really bad feeling about this a really bad feeling.

Brock laughed at his younger friend’s expression. “I being the master of love have detected the radiating love connection between yourself and the lovely Miss. Maple.” Brock grinned when he saw Ash’s expression go from pensive to angry.

Growling a little in anger he pushed Brock away. “Don’t look so smug Brock there is nothing going on. You know I will always belong to her.”

Brock’s carefree grin dropped away and it was replaced with concern. “You know she wouldn’t want this Ash. It has been years since…”

“You don’t know what she would want.” He hissed towards the older man throwing him a glare that Brock had only seen once. That was when he came across Ash at the end of the Cinnabar campaign. “Just shut up and leave it.”

He was slightly taken aback by the anger but decided to leave it…for now. “Alright Ash…but this isn’t over.”

“Whatever…” Ash grumbled as he started to close the distance between himself and the Maple siblings. He no longer felt like being around Brock to be grilled and he knew Brock would go back to his happy facade in front of the Maple siblings.

“Come on guys we are almost out of the city!” Max turned back around and called out to the two lagging Rangers.

Ash and Brock shot a tentative smile at each other before they pushed forward to catch up with the Maple siblings and into the range of the bickering. The two were currently fighting over which way would be the fastest through the woods.

“Come on midget!” May grinned as she messed up her brother’s hair. “Take a ride on the wild side and just agree to take my way. It will be a greater adventure anyway!”

Max scoffed at his sister while fixing his hair. “Well May, using my navigational upgrade we should be through in about two days…if we go your way we will probably die in there.”

In response May only laughed at her younger brother. “It only took a week for me to get through…but I found all the short cuts!”

Grumbling a response something along the lines of “Doubt it” Max just gave up on trying to convince her to go his way. In an attempt to appeal to a higher authority Max turned to Ash and turned on his best puppy dog face. “Please tell May to let me use my pokenav…she will get us lost and I don’t want to die before my time!”

Ash just grinned before shaking his head. “I am not getting into this and look we are almost to the woods anyway!” He patted the younger boy’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. “Don’t worry I will make sure nothing bad happens to you while we are in there.”

 

Petalburg Woods – Petalburg City entrance

 

The group had been hiking along the trail for approximately 30 minutes before May had elected to take the group down one of her short cuts. Not 30 minutes later they were hiking through the underbrush with no trail in sight.

Everyone in the group appeared to feel differently about this. May appeared confident in her ability to locate her short cut and knew for a fact this would take hours off their journey. Max appeared hesitant and resisted the urge to beg Ash to turn around before they all died. Ash followed May confident that May would lead them on the right path. Brock on the other hand was also becoming hesitant about the path and began marking the way back with his combat knife.

Coming out of the brush they came out into a field. A few feet away Max saw what appeared to be a giant almost human sized Zigzagoon. “Whoa! Look at that Zigzagoon! I’m gonna catch it!”

Ash, May and Brock just observed as Max threw a pokeball releasing his Ralts. “Alright Ralts let’s go!”

 “Careful Max!” May yelled out to her little brother, despite any fights they may have about anything and everything else, He was still her little brother.

Max shot a superior smile at his sister. “May while you may be a great coordinator I know every pokemon out there. With Ralts superior special attack range this fight will be easy no matter what the size.”

“Last time I worry about you brat!” May’s eyes practically shot fire as she glared at her little brother.

All the commotion had disturbed the giant Zigzagoon. The giant pokemon finally turned towards the group. Max was about to order an attack when the pokemon started to speak.

“Do not attack fellow travelers for I am just like you!” The Zigzagoon started to walk towards the group and as it got closer the group realized that it had a human face.

Max and May started to scream and point towards the pokemon creature. “Whaaa…what is that!” May yelled and turned towards Ash and Brock. “Kill it kill it kill it!”

“What fresh new hell is this?” Ash muttered to himself as he stared at the pokemon man creature…whatever the fuck this was.

Brock seemed to have a similar attitude as he debated throwing out one of his pokemon but decided against it for the moment. ‘Perhaps this is standard in Hoenn?’ He turned to Max and May from their looks though he was thinking perhaps not.

The pokemon creature smirked at the reactions he received. Clearly he enjoyed freaking people out that came across one of his hand made creations. “Hello fellow travelers! I am Nicholai the scientist.” He grinned at the group as a whole. “I study pokemon up close and personal by disguising myself like one. Currently I am working on a secret project.” He winked at the group while waggling his finger still covered in the Zigzagoon suit. “But I can’t tell you what it is. Suffice to say I am studying how Pokemon detect certain objects.”

“Right…” Ash muttered as he leaned over closer to Brock. He whispered just loud enough so Brock could hear. “This guy appears to be another nut job like that researcher at Mt. Moon who dressed up like the Clefairy.”

Brock nodded a little in agreement. “Probably harmless but just in case we should keep our guard up.”

Max ignored the near silent interplay between the two Rangers. He on the other hand had turned his full attention to Nicholai. “That sounds so cool! I would love to study pokemon as closely as you do.” The young trainer smiled as he recalled his Ralts seeing no need to for the small psychic pokemon to be out and about. “Hey… so we are totally lost…”

“WE are not lost! I know exactly where we are going!” May interrupted while glaring at her younger brother. She huffed when she watched Max roll his eyes, long gone were the days where she could completely cow him with her glare.

The blue haired boy continued on as if his older sister had not interrupted him in the first place. “Right as I was saying we are kind of lost and I was kind of hoping you could help get us out of here. At the least point us back to the main path.”

Nicholai nodded a bit and seemed to think about it for a moment. ‘Just got to keep them from going North and they should be out lickity split.’ He smiled at the group ignoring the glare that May was shooting back at them. “Right well we just have to turn ourselves around here and head down a ways before making a hard right. That will get you back on the path! I will even take the time to sho-“

The brunette trainer felt no remorse in cutting Nicholai off. “Sorry Nicholai! We are not lost and I know exactly where I am going. I happen to know there is a short cut ahead that will shave days off our trip through the woods!”

Ash scratched his head a little trying to think back to what May had said early. “Ummm…May not to point anything out…but ummm didn’t you say hours last time?” He queried in what he hoped was a respectful tone. Last thing he wanted to do was to start a fight with the hot headed girl.

There was no way that her short cut would be circumvented. She was not spending any more time in this forest than necessary thanks to some weird-o in a pokemon suit. “Doesn’t matter what I said earlier Ash! We will be out of here before you know it!” She started to march off into the woods clearly expecting everyone else to follow. “Come on slow pokes!”

“Well she certainly is the forceful one isn’t she?” Brock laughed at his comment before a smile slid onto his face. It had been too long before he had gone on a true nature hike. Rather than fight it he decided to revel in the experience. “Well come on guys let’s get going!”

Ash followed along behind Brock. He turned his head to look back at the two last members. “Hey Nicholai you don’t have to come with if you don’t want.”

Max looked at the researcher in distress for a moment before he threw on the best puppy dog eyes. “Please say you will come, we will need someone that actually knows the Western and Northern part of the forest. I don’t want to die because my big sister is a sadist.”

The researcher quickly took his ZigZagoon costume off and packed it into his bag. He seemed to think about it before nodding towards the two. “I will come with you. I have to make a report back with the man that is backing my research anyway.”

Max smiled before he started into a long conversation with the odd researcher regarding pokemon and what exactly his research entailed. Nicholai appeared to be equally consumed with the conversation which left the other three to walk in near silence. None of the remaining party wanted to draw attention to themselves by either Max or Nicholai and possibly be drawn into the conversation.

It was some time later when May who had taken point with Pikachu suddenly heard a cry from a little ways up the path she was cutting clear through the underbrush. “Pikachu…can you go ahead and report back?” May whispered quietly to her traveling partner’s pokemon.

“Chaaaa…” The little yellow rodent seemed to agree with May’s request and quickly scampered off towards the source of the sounds.

A moment later Ash and Brock arrived by May who was standing in herself made path and appeared to be looking for something. “Hey what’s up May? Where is Pikachu?” Ash said as he looked around for his pokemon that should have been running point with May.

“Shut up Ash!” She whisper yelled at the black haired Ranger as she shot him a glare. “I heard something up ahead.” Her tone conveyed the concern with just a little bit of fear making its way into her voice. “Pikachu volunteered to scout ahead.”

Ash was about to respond and to tell her not to just use his Pikachu without his consent when Pikachu broke out of the bushes. The small pokemon started to chatter frantically at May before it noticed Ash was there. Immediately the small pokemon turned to Ash and started to relay what is saw to Ash in a series of hand motions and well words. “Pikkka! Pi Pi Pi! Pikkkkkka….Chuuuu.” The small pokemon chattered quickly hoping its trainer got it all.

By this time Max and Nicholai had caught up to the two just as Ash and Brock were pulling out larger pokeballs from their bags. The two balls were storage balls after all Rangers were not expected to walk around fully geared with weapons at all times. It traded convenience for battle readiness but all in all it was a more realistic option.

“What’s going on?” Max queried as he noticed Brock and Ash outfitting themselves with weaponry. Ash was adjusting combat knives and kunai placing them in multiple loops and pockets in his vest, belt, and pants. Some of the knives even made their way into his shirt. “Brock I need you to watch out for Max and Nicholai over here. May you are Brock’s back up.”

Brock nodded as he adjusted his bo-staff and slipped on his light weight Kevlar armor. A wicked looking combat knife or two made their way into Brock’s sleeves. He then placed two Kevlar bracers over his arms. “Not a problem Ash...”

Max was growing frustrated with the fact no one was answering him and also a little frightened. This was definitely not something he had ever encountered while traveling on his own during his journey he started last year. “What are you doing Ash!?”

Taking a moment away from preparation he shot a confident smile towards Max. “Just prepping for a high level extraction, per Pikachu there are two people ahead that seem to be holding two older people and a child hostage. I plan on getting rid of them. Now you guys stay here and on guard.”

Shooting one last smile at the group, Ash disappeared into the underbrush with Pikachu following behind him. May looked on with a hint of worry, she knew Ash would be fine but still…

Nicholai glanced around quickly. He needed to get reinforcements in case things went poorly and luckily he knew just where to get some quick back up. “Brock…” The young researcher had quickly sidled up to the older trainer who was obviously left in charge. Once he had the man’s attention he continued. “My station is nearby….I think I can run quickly and get us some reinforcements…in case things go pear shaped.”

“Hm…Alright Nicholai…just be careful.” Brock felt he could not tell the younger man not to go since he was not officially part of their group anyway. Still he was not completely comfortable letting the man go with Ash on the move. The dark skinned man watched as Nicholai disappeared into the forest.

 

Ash glanced back at the group before disappearing into the underbrush he slowly moved up ahead creeping around the edges of the clearing he came across a familiar sight. Botch and Cassidy…he would recognize those hair colors anywhere.

‘Crap still too far away to hear what they are saying…’ Ash glanced over at Pikachu who was stealthily shadowing Ash in the long grass. Unfortunately for Ash there was no good way to make his way into the field on this side of the clearing without being seen right away. Currently Butch and Cassidy had knives out and seemed to be threatening the older pair…while the younger girl was in tears. “Great…” Ash grumbled as he slowly slide into the tree line and started to circle around the clearing.

Finally Ash was coming within ear shot and he strained his ears for a chance at the conversation while moving into a better position to take both of the trainers out in one go.

“Come on Gramps!” Butch shook the older man by his shirt. “All you need to do is let us take the girl and you are home free. Just need you to hand her over and provide us with the location code.”

The older man must have said something that Butch didn’t like because a moment later Cassidy had stabbed the older woman with one of her trench knives into the older woman’s shoulder. “Oh my I slipped…now if only I had a location code I ma—“

Cassidy trailed off as she was interrupted by Brock, May, Max, and Nicholai suddenly bursting out of the forest. “Shit…”

“What the fuck…” Ash muttered as he glanced down at Pikachu. “Pikachu we are going to have to go now…the little girl is our main priority the other two our secondary.”

“Pika…” Pikachu nodded as it attempted to assess the situation itself and the best way to get through.

 

Brock and the others were awaiting for Nicholai to return with reinforcements when they suddenly saw Nicholai coming charging out of the woods. “GO GO GO!” The young research screamed as he kept running past the three.

The three only had a moment to figure out what was occurring when men obviously not associated with any type of research team burst out of the thick under brush.

“Go! Into the clearing!” Brock managed to yell before practically pushing May and Max into action. The four managed to clear the tree line before the new grunts had managed to regroup.

“Steelix! Go!” Brock yelled as he managed to get one of his pokeballs off his belt and threw it ahead of them. The group attempted to maneuver themselves so they did not become separated from Ash completely. The giant steel snake assisted with the intimidation factor. The moment the grunts cleared the tree line most attempted to back pedal away from Steelix.

 

“Shit that’s why…” Ash observed the pitched battle that had started. May had called forth her Venasaur, Wartortle, Blaziken, and Glaceon for the fight. The grunts appeared to have gotten over their initial fear of Steelix and had started sending forth their pokemon mainly consisting of Gyardos, Lapras, and Marill.  A few Octillery and Mudkips were also included in the mix. “Hn water pokemon…that gives me an idea to help out at least, Pikachu maneuver over to Brock and May quickly.”

Ash started to move towards Butch and Cassidy just as Cassidy had decided to slit the old woman’s throat with her knife. “Butch we have to move…”

“Pikachu! Thunder Struck!” Ash called out as he put on the speed and rammed into Butch with his elbow…his other arm coming around in a quick jab attempting to slice into Butch with his sword. Luckily for Butch he had slipped a little and managed to turn it into a roll, bringing the teal haired man out of the way of the blade’s path.

“Pikkkkaaaa….CHU!” The small electric rodent gathered electricity in its pouches before bringing down a jagged lightning attack. The moment it hit the ground it turned into a massive thunder wave. The wave of electricity rocked the mostly water pokemon causing massive damage in the direct blast zone and paralyzing effects in the outer pokemon.

“Thanks Ash!” May called out as she directed her Venasaur to use its vine whip to keep back most of the water pokemon. She depended on her other three pokemon to hold the flanks.

Cassidy growled as she released her Raticate. “Go Raticate!” She glared at Ash for a moment and then observed the poor Max child all be his lonesome. “Hyper fang on that blue haired child!”

“Brock! Intercept the Raticate!” Ash yelled over the din of the fighting. Butch had used the time to recover from the attack and had pulled out two sickle like weapons. Taking one last glance at Brock he noted with satisfaction that Steelix had moved to protect Max and at some point during the battle the young girl had gotten away and over to Max.

“Butch handle this ingrate…I believe that is my old friend Brock. What he is doing this far from Kanto territory I don’t know but I will make him regret it.” Cassidy received one last nod from Butch before she jetted off to engage the ex-gym leader. ‘Last thing we need are more Kanto League dogs sniffing around here into our business.’ She thought with a grimace. 

While Brock was busy dealing with Cassidy, May was left to handle the lower level grunts. It appeared that she was playing a mostly defensive game. Despite Pikachu’s earlier massive attack most of the water types were slowly recovering. The grunts were also releasing fresh pokemon to the field. Aqua did not count on quality they counted on power and numbers.

“Well Hutch! It has been a while hasn’t it?” He brought his sword around in an attempt to decapitate the teal haired ex-rocket member.

“My name is Butch!” The older man grunted as he deflected the blade with one sickle and brought the other one around to trap the blade. Unfortunately for Butch, Ash just used the caught blade to drive Butch back away from the older man who was lying by his dying wife’s side.

Butch grunted as he was driven back. He glared at the young trainer before a spark of recognition took hold. ‘Of course if Brock is here it makes sense…’ “Well if it isn’t my old buddy Ash Ketchup! I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Ketchum….asshole and I hope you didn’t forget about this either…Pikachu!” Ash pulled his blade away from Butch, twisting the blade quickly to break Butch’s guard. The dark haired ranger grinned as Pikachu appeared in a blur of light under Ash’s legs before nailing Butch in the abdomen with a quick attack.

Butch fell back into a roll and absorbed most of the attack. He managed to throw one of his pokeballs out in fact he did not even know which one. Luckily for him his Mightyena appeared in a blast of Red light. Taking a moment to recover he pointed a sickle towards Pikachu. “Get the rodent!”

Pikachu quickly dove into the high grass with the giant Mightyena following closely behind snapping its jaws where Pikachu’s tail just had been a moment before.

“Well well Botch…shall we end this?” Ash grinned at the man before rushing in once more bringing his katana in a wide low arc attempting to take Butch’s feet out from under him. The older man brought his Sickles down to protect his feet and was subsequently kicked across the field by Ash’s foot.

Butch grunted as he landed across the field. He decided to send out more assistance for his Mightyena and threw out Hitmontop’s pokeball as well. The Hitmontop appeared in a blast of red light. “Top Top!” The pokemon looked over to Butch for orders.

Taking a look at Butch throwing forth a pokeball, Ash unclipped a second from his belt as well, throwing it towards the Hitmontop. A moment later Gardevoir appeared in a flash of red light. “Go Gardevoir…keep Hitmontop busy.”

 _“Ash…be careful.”_ The embrace pokemon glanced at its trainer before it teleported across the field out of the way of Hitmontop’s kick. Gardevoir returned the favor with a focused psybeam which hit Hitmontop in his chest sending the fighting type crashing along the field.

 

May glanced over at the fight between Ash and the Teal haired man before looking over to see Brock engaging with blonde haired woman. Luckily Steelix was taking care of Max and the young girl that was a weight off her mind. “Yikes!” May leapt to the side to avoid a stray water gun. ‘Get your head in the game girl this is no contest.’ She thought to herself as she turned to her Blaziken. “Blaziken use sunny day!”

“Blaz” The bird like pokemon nodded before sending up a giant shining orb into the sky causing the sun which was already out to glow brighter. This upped the attack power for both Blaziken and Venasaur. While it weakened Glaceon and Wartortle it was strategically the best option.

May grinned as she yelled out to her Venasaur. “Alright Venasaur! Solarbeam Blitz!” May grinned before turning to her Blaziken. “Blaziken take advantage of sunny day and use flame thrower!” Finally she turned to Glaceon and Wartortle who had taken shelter from the sun under one of Venasaur’s large flower petals. “Glaceon use barrier on anything that gets too close some of those Gyardos may know flame thrower. Wartortle I need you to intercept any water attacks used against Blaziken with your own!”

“Sauuuuur!” The large Venasaur growled before it started to fire solar beam strikes continually. With sunny day in effect Venasaur was not hindered by the need charge up its solar beam attack. The green energy beams flew into Team Aqua’s pokemon. Due to the fast nature of the attacks it was not exactly 100% accurate and many of the water types were able to dodge the blasts. The pokemon in larger groups though became prime targets for Venasaur. Blaziken backed Venasaur up by keeping the water types from flanking them.

‘Not good!’ He thought as Cassidy came right up the middle the only option he had was to dump the bo staff. He let himself fall backwards and brought his leg up and into Cassidy’s stomach. Brock managed to flip her through the air and away from him but not before he felt the bite of one of her trench knives going through his shoulder in the soft part of his armor. “Fucking bitch!”

Pushing himself off the ground with his good arm, the dark haired man glanced at his right shoulder and noticed though deep the blade had not punctured anything important. ‘Lucky lucky Brock-o’ He thought to himself before shaking off the injury. ‘I’ll have to deal with it later.’ He quickly picked up his staff and took up a defensive stance once more ready to repel Cassidy if he could.

 

While Pikachu and Gardevoir kept Butch’s pokemon busy, Ash was once again locked in combat with the ex-rocket operative. Ash swung the sword around and brock through Butch’s guard managing to drive the blade into the man’s forearm. With a sadistic grin Ash twisted the katana’s blade.

“AHH!” Butch growled in pain as he managed to pull himself off of the blade and backed off a little holding his wounded arm to his chest. He surveyed the battle field quickly and could see that things were not going well for their side. Cassidy was holding against Brock for now but his pokemon were being turned into human punching bags. The grunts that were their reinforcements were taking a pounding from one damn girl. Now where was Nicholai…ah there he was…with his Rapidash and in position excellent.

“Nicholai get the girl! Cassidy I believe it is time for a tactical retreat!” Butch called as he managed one last surprise attack slamming Ash back into a tree. If he had the time he would have finished the boy off but he was too drained for a kill strike that would finish the boy off before he recovered. Butch was already moving away letting his pokemon cover his retreat.

“Right! Rapidash! FLAME THROWER!” Nicholai cried towards the steed he sat on. With sunny day in effect the flame thrower was doubly effective as it rained molten fire down upon the Steelix protecting the girl. Nicholai grinned as Steelix roared in pain and started to withdraw from the children it was protecting to avoid the flames.

The moment it was clear Nicholai bent his knees into his steed’s flanks and raced forward. He grabbed hold of the girl before Max could even comprehend what had occurred. ‘Sorry Max…if you just could see that we are doing what is right for the world.’ With a pitying gaze towards the boy he landed a vicious kick to the head on his ride by…knocking the poor blue haired trainer out cold. “Head towards base Rapidash!”

Needing no further urging the fire horse sprinted through the battle field before anything could touch him and cleared the tree line leaving behind a trail of burns in the grass.

Cassidy grinned at the injured Brock before retrieving her Raticate. “Well Brock it has been fun…but I have to go! I think I will take a present first though. Take the girl!” With that she also made her way into the tree line.

Brock only had a moment to comprehend what was occurring before he watched the grunts grab May. The Gyardos had managed to break through the line with concentrated flame throwers which drove back Glaceon and Venasaur from their master. Wartortle was kept back with thunder shocks and Blaziken with hydro pump attacks. ‘Shit…not good!’ Unfortunately there was nothing he could do. Steelix was still recovering from the surprise flame thrower and Golem was simply too slow.

With Team Aqua gone along with Butch and Cassidy they would have to regroup before any pursuit could be made. Brock made his way over to Max to check on the child.

 

Petalburg Woods – Field clearing.

Ash looked around the clearing in anger. Not only had they been hit by a betrayal from that fuck wad Nicholai but they lost the girl and May. His hands clenched in anger before he forced them to unclench. The current situation was not good Brock was injured, the older gentleman was still in mourning over his dead daughter and as they came to find out his granddaughter, and Max was still recovering from his head injury. May’s pokemon were in various states of injury along with Steelix making them essentially out of the game. Essentially it left everything up to him as he was the only member of the party not injured in some way.

Only one thing for it now. “Go Gengar!” The purple ghost appeared in a flash of light. “Gen…Gen…Gar!” The purple ghost pokemon smirked as it looked around and noticed that no one seemed to be in a playful mood. In fact his master looked down right serious. It tilted its head for a moment. “Gen?”

“Gengar I need you to find someone without being detected…” Ash sighed slightly and attempted to hide his annoyance when he saw the disappointed look that Gengar gave off. For all the good qualities of the pokemon the ghost’s mischievous attitude did not mesh well with emergencies.  Taking a moment to think up a way to turn it into a game he grinned and knelt down by Gengar.

“Alright Gengar…think of it as hide and go seek.” The ghost’s eyes lit up as it started to disappear before Ash yelled out. “Wait…you haven’t heard the rules yet…” The pokemon slowly rematerialized as it cocked its whole body. “Gen…gar?”

“The rules are you need to find a group with a teal haired man, a blonde haired woman, and a brunette girl that will probably have a bandanna on. Once you find them you have to come right back to me.” Gengar started to looked bored with the game until Ash continued. “Once you inform me where they are, you can go back and play any prank you want, just as long as they are incapacitated.”

“Gen…Gen gar!” The Gengar grinned before shooting off into the forest and out of sight. Sighing a bit in annoyance over the whole ordeal Ash slowly stood back up and glanced over at Brock. “Brock…can you start patching everyone up and defend this area?”

The older man grunted as he finished wrapping up his own knife wound. “Yeah I’ll take care of the others but how are you going to take out those grunts on your own?” Brock had a bad feeling about this…a very bad feeling.

“Simple…” Ash grinned as he started to take off his gloves. “I am going to use Aura to find them.”

Brock jumped to his feet and started to move towards Ash. “You can’t be serious! Last time you did that…” He cut himself off before settling for a glare at the younger trainer. His voice dropped to a whisper as he neared Ash. “Last time you did that…”

“I know…I went berserk at Cinnabar. I should still be sane enough even with the blood lust to tell friend from foe.” Ash finished taking off the inhibitor gloves and let them fall to the ground. The moment the gloves disconnected with his skin there was a sudden pulse. The dark haired ranger’s eyes glowed blue for a moment before suddenly switching to red. “Just don’t make a threatening move Brocko…I am going to kill them all.”

Ash felt his sanity slowly slip away…the world turned into a reddish hue before losing all color as his aura spread out in all directions seeking for Leaf. He recognized Brock in front of him as a friend…the other two people he did not recognize…but Pikachu was with them so they must be allies. ‘No wait…I am seeking May…no that can’t be it…Leaf is the one missing. Why hasn’t she come back from Cinnabar?’ Once more he spread out his senses seeking for the girl he had not seen since Cinnabar before he found her. ‘May!’ He felt her and for a moment he saw her as May…but just as suddenly as his sanity briefly returned it flashed again and May’s image became distorted before it was replaced by Leaf.

He could sense people around her with bad intentions…they wanted to harm his leaf. ‘No they can’t…I won’t let them.’ He heard a voice in his head the aura uncontrolled slowly leaking through his consciousness and replacing it with it’s own will surpassing Ash’s will. The dark haired trainer let it too he reveled in it and he felt the blood lust coming forth. ‘Just like Cinnabar…oh the wonderful feeling I will break their bones and watch life leave their body.’

Brock slowly backed up as he watched his best friend slowly lose his sanity. No matter how much his concern he knew that Ash was beyond reason now. The last time this occurred was Cinnabar and unfortunately the only thing that managed to contain him was Mewtwo. The Rocket Experiment had used it’s immense power to subdue Ash’s aura long enough for Blaine and Mewtwo to fashion inhibitors that cut off Ash’s connection to his aura. Of course without the gloves on…his aura was free to run loose and control him.

Brock could just make out what Ash was muttering. “Leaf….Leaf….Leaf I will find you I will save you from them…May? No Leaf? May!” Ash screamed before looking at Brock once more. “I will return with Leaf, Brock, I am going to kill them all…”

Ash did not note the concern across Brock’s face nor could he fathom why Brock would be concerned not when he felt so good. He could crush Brock’s skull in right now…but no he was an ally right? ‘Leaf! Yes Leaf I must find her.’ Without further words to the small group Ash disappeared into the tree line racing towards Leaf and pushing his aura out. There was going to be a blood bath…the men and women holding Leaf captive were already dead their bodies just didn’t know it yet.

 

A/N: Alright well I wrote a little longer than usual I wanted to actually have a cliff hanger for once since I normally wrap everything up in a nice little package. So I am happy to report that Gengar won by one vote. I kind of needed a ghost pokemon for what I was going to do. I have Ash’s 6th legendary poll up. This will be a quick one since I will need the legendary in the next chapter probably. Next chapter we will see if Ash can hold his sanity together long enough not to kill everyone or get killed himself. I will probably write in a flash back near the end of next chapter or the chapter after that explaining how Ash’s aura works. As you can see Ash has little to no control over it and it will be due to the way it is activated. Of course with the inhibitors he never had a chance to actually learn how to control it so it controls him. I wanted the aura in here so he could use it to find things but I did not want to make him a weak aura user just able to sense things. At the same time I felt if I gave him the super powered aura abilities it would be almost a cheat. So I gave him aura that is powerful with a really awful and debilitating side effect. Till next time.

 

 

 


	7. The Petalburg Woods - Blaze

A/N: So yeah there is going to be a lot of bloodshed in this chapter and death. Enjoy!

 

Chapter 7 – The Petalburg Woods – Blaze

Pikachu took a moment before dashing off after its trainer. The small pokemon disappeared into the trees, leaving Brock alone at the edge of the tree line to deal with the after math of the battle.

Brock stared off into the tree line in silence for what felt like hours but had probably only been a few minutes at most. ‘Damn idiot…’ He was unsure what to do at this time but for the moment he bent over to pick up the aura inhibitors that Ash had worn and made sure to store them away in his vest’s interior pocket. ‘Hopefully he will be able to use these again.’ His musings were interrupted though by Max.

“Brock what happened to Ash? He looked insane after he took off his gloves.” Max was still recovering from the blow to the head. At the moment he was still on the ground and had propped himself up against May’s Venasaur who was still recovering from the vicious flame thrower attacks it had received earlier. “Where is May anyway?”

“Hn…in a way…yes. Those gloves were all that stopped his aura from taking over.” Brock stated as he left the edge of the woods and went back over to his bag that was on the ground near Golem. “May was taken with that girl by Nicholai and his flunkies along this the young girl. Ash went off to find them.” He bent over and rummaged through the bag for a moment before he found a second larger variant of a pokeball that Brock kept medical supplies in. He glanced over at Ash’s Gardevoir that he had forgotten to recall in his haste to find May.  “Gardevoir, can you keep an eye on the surrounding area for any presence that may be coming this way? Without Ash here and with me injured, I will need all the prep time I can get.”

Gardevoir looked up from its efforts to locate its wayward trainer before slowly gliding towards the center of the group. _“Of course Brock…I do hope that Ash will be alright.”_ The psychic pokemon spoke through the mental link it created with Brock. A moment after she had reached the center of the group she closed her eyes and let her mind expand to the surrounding areas for any pokemon or humans that may cause their group harm.

“Me too Gardevoir.” Brock muttered more to himself than to Gardevoir. ‘Ash I don’t want to have to be the one to put you down…’ The older man took what he needed from the medical supplies after looking over the injured pokemon. Venasaur and Steelix had received the most damage from the flame thrower attacks but that didn’t mean the other pokemon had come away unscathed.

Max watched in silence as Brock started to tend to his sister’s pokemon. He didn’t want to admit it but he was worried about his big sis. ‘Ash will get her back he has to get her back!’ Max thought to himself as he felt wet tears start to gather at the edge of his eyes. He tried to take his mind off the scenarios going through his head by focusing his attention on Brock’s comment about aura. ‘I wonder what Brock meant by aura? I never heard of it before unless it is connected to Lucario’s aura sphere…perhaps I can get more out of him.’ He just waited until Brock seemed to have taken care of the worst injuries and seemed to be in a lull.

“May will be alright right? That Aura is a good thing right?” Max fiddled around with his glasses while looking towards the older trainer for comfort.

The older trainer sighed…what the hell do you tell a kid that his older sister may be dead and if she isn’t already her rescuer may kill her if he doesn’t die first. Finally deciding on settling for a white lie for the boy, Brock forced a reassuring smile on his face. “Don’t worry Max, Ash will rescue May and bring her back.” He felt like a terrible liar when the younger child’s face lit up. ‘Ash I swear if you don’t bring May back I won’t even need to call Lance for the containment team. I will finish you off myself.’ The older man grunted once more before going back to his work but was interrupted by the older gentleman who had finally snapped out of his daze.

“Young man…they have my granddaughter.” The older man had made his dying wife as comfortable as he could in her final moments. Unfortunately the cut had been fatal and now he had to be strong for his granddaughter. “My grandson was to meet us here shortly. He will surely help your friend upon his arrival.”

Nodding a little Brock turned his attention to the older man. “I apologize for not introducing myself sooner. I am Brock, former gym leader of Pewter City. This young man is Max Maple and our friend Ash Ketchum went to retrieve Max’s older sister May and your granddaughter.” Once again Brock was forced to place a confident smile across his face. ‘I swear Ash do not make me a liar!’

 

 

Petalburg Woods – Nicholai’s base of operation

 

 

‘Gen…Gen…Gar…” The ghost pokemon had tracked the people to what appeared to be a small compound deep in the Petalburg woods and well out of the way of normal travel paths. The complex had a chain link fence surrounding it on all sides. The ghost pokemon slowly faded away from sight before slipping through the cracks of the fence.

It continued to scout around the outside but could not find what its master had wanted. There were a few men and woman outside but none of them matched the description his master had given. Finally it turned its attention to the small concrete building in the middle of the compound. It was a one level building that only had a single door attached to it. No windows or skylights or any other entrances that the ghost pokemon could find. It paused for a moment before floating through one of the outside walls.

The moment Gengar appeared inside it realized it was in a lab with some of the wild Petalburg pokemon caged up. Random IVs went from different colored fluids into the cages and the pokemon contained within. “Gen…Gar?” The purple ghost pokemon tilted its head a little as it looked about in confusion. Again this was not what he wanted but it was not right either. “Gar..Gar…” Gengar grinned Ash never said it could not have fun while looking for its target. Taking but a moment, Gengar turned the room into chaos as he released the caged pokemon into the lab.

Gengar took a moment to watch the pokemon start to tear the lab apart from the inside. Satisfied that mischief had been managed Gengar dropped into the ground as it stuffed one of its fists in its mouth to keep quiet.

The moment that Gengar dropped through the floor and quickly disappeared again into thin air when it realized the room was inhabited. It quickly realized that it had found the people that its master had been looking for. Right below Gengar stood Butch and Cassidy outside of a cell which contained May and the other little girl that Ash had been trying to protect earlier.

 

Petalburg Woods –Holding Cell

 

May groaned a little as she finally came around from being knocked out on the trip to where here was. Of course she was never the most compliant of people to begin with on a good day, so being kidnapped had not really provided her incentive to cooperate. She rubbed her eyes a little before taking in her surroundings. First thing she noticed was the fact she was in a cell…the second issue her remaining pokeballs were gone. “Shit.” The brunette muttered before finally spotting them on a desk on the other side of the little room. Of course she would have to get through the cell bars first…which wasn’t happening.

She heard a second person groaning and realized that the little girl that Ash had been trying to rescue was in the cell with her. “Are you doing ok?”

The younger girl’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment before also taking in her surroundings before finally realized she was also in a cell. “Ummm...I guess…where are we?”

May was about to answer before the door to the room flew open. Both girls had to cover their eyes from the bright glare of the hall lights.

“You are currently at a Team Aqua Outpost Ms. Stone…far far away from your father’s influence.” Butch stated as he closed the door behind the two.

May glanced over to the younger girl in surprise at the teal man’s statement before realizing the young girl had the trademark silver/steel hair of the stone family. “Your Sarah Stone!” She exclaimed in surprise over the revelation.

“Guilty as charged.” The young steel haired girl tried to shoot a confident smile at her cellmate but it came off more of a nervous smile. Then again considering the situation it was completely understandable.

He shot the two captured females a leering grin before slowly making his way over to the cell. “Your grandparents were less than willing to provide us with the security clearance codes for the Devon Corporation. I hope that you are more amenable to our situation, Team Aqua is in need of the Devon Corporation’s services.”

“Never! When my big brother finds out about this you are going to be sorry!” The young girl glared at the two members of Team Aqua. Inside she was  quivering in fear over the fact that Team Aqua had managed to not only over power her grandparents but had spirited her away without suffering any losses.

Cassidy laughed a little over the little girl’s false bravado before she started to clap. “Oh my aren’t you the little fire cracker. Now I don’t expect you to have an answer for us right away.” A smile crossed her face that did not hold a hint of warmth before she continued. “Of course If you wait too long…I may have to let Butch here convince you in some unconventional ways. He has some sick and twisted desires that unfortunately even I cannot fulfill” She sighed with faux resentment over the predicament. 

The teal haired man nonchalantly moved over to the cage before whispering to the girls. “I have broken younger girls than you…but even I won’t turn up a chance at being your first…of course after I’ve had you I will probably be your last.” Butch laughed aloud as he stepped back, the terrified looks on the girls faces just turned him on more.

Cassidy stepped over to the door before opening it up. “Come on Butch we do want the information from them before you have your way with them.”

“Sick bastard!” May finally managed to overcome her shock and anger shot over her face. “IF you come near either of us I will strangle you!”

May’s response was only met with laughter from the duo. “Oh such harsh words little girl…I believe I will enjoy breaking you the most.” Without further response Butch closed the door behind, leaving the two girls to dwell alone in near dark of the cell room.

Sarah started to cry. “That sick fuck…I swear if he touches me…” She broke down and started to cry harder unable to go on with even thinking of the possibility.

Unsure what else to do, May inched closer to the daughter of the famous Stone family and took the girl into a comforting embrace not that she was much better off.

Gengar watched the exchange from above in concern. Despite not being connected to the world of the living and their concerns it knew from what the Teal haired man was implying that it was something its master would want to know of right away. Without further ado the ghost pokemon shot out of the compound like a bottle rocket in search of its master. Luckily it was able to hone in on Ash’s presence due to the aura that Ash was throwing off in waves.

 

Petalburg Woods – Ash

 

 

‘Free!’ That was the word that best described how he felt as he ran through the forest. His senses expanded to a degree that if he compared them to what they were like prior to releasing his Aura it would be like comparing a newborn cheetah cub to a full grown adult. He felt where every tree was located, every branch, rocks and even the pebbles.

He continued to rush forward where he sensed the human beings. Pushing his senses out further he finally found the aura of his poor Leaf and what was worse he could feel she was terrified. ‘No! No! I will not let them kill you again Leaf! Hold on I am coming for you!’ The man let loose a feral howl before increasing his speed. Pikachu had caught up to him by this point and kept pace with his trainer.

Even with his aura he could only sense living objects or what was naturally part of the environment. Due to this he had managed to trip at least one early warning relay that had already alerted the base of an incoming threat.

He felt his thoughts becoming jumbled for a moment when a dark purple pokemon appeared in front of him. Ash scrambled to a halt before he stated at the pokemon for a moment trying to assess what it wanted. ‘Enemy?’ His mind queried as his aura thirst for blood and the sound of broken bone. ‘No…no Gengar? My pokemon!’

“Gengar!” The black haired Ranger managed to fight down his madness but only for a moment. “Did you find Leaf?”  Unfortunately the madness only left his eyes for a moment before red started to seep into his mind again. His thoughts slowly drifted towards violence and he had trouble staying on task long enough to listen to Gengar.

“Gar…Gen Gen Gar?” The purple ghost pokemon looked at its master in confusion for a moment before deciding its master must be playing a game. The frown that crossed its face a moment before turned into an evil smirk as it grinned and nodded. “Gen…Gen…Gar…Gen!” The purple pokemon floated about trying to best describe the situation.

Ash barely comprehended the situation that Gengar was describing to him as his thoughts drifted towards his lost Leaf. In fact he only listened for half a minute longer before his jumbled thoughts told him to move in now! He suddenly took off like a shot leaving Pikachu to catch up to his trainer and Gengar behind.

“GEN GAR!” The purple pokemon yelled in frustration over its master’s inattention to the situation. Shaking its head in annoyance, Gengar decided that if Ash would not listen to the ghost type then it would have fun. “Gen Gen Gar…” The purple ghost type disappeared from sight as it made its way back towards the Aqua compound.

By the time Ash and Pikachu had reached the edge of the compound the early warning systems were already blaring. The Aqua grunts that had been standing around outside earlier while Gengar had quietly snuck across the compound were now on high alert. Multiple early warning sensors had been tripped and the compounds flashing interior lights had turned on. The whole complex was going into a lock down to make sure nothing could get in or out. Blast doors had already slid over the only entrance to the concrete bunker in case the attacker got through the front line of grunts.

Unfortunately for the Aqua grunts they were not dealing with a normal attacker. Ash threw forth two of his remaining pokeballs, releasing Arcanine and Lucario. “Shatter their forces!” He called to his pokemon before he started to pull ahead leaving behind his slightly confused pokemon. Neither could understand why their master was so reckless but they heeded his commands.

Without missing a beat Ash channeled his aura into his own body and used it to propel himself up and over the fence. He landed flawlessly on the other side surprising the nearest grunt. Ash grabbed the woman’s face with one of his hands. A twisted smile came over his face while the girl tried to fight back. “Why do you fight? Don’t you understand you are already dead?” He queried in a mock concerned voice before he channeled his aura into his hand…crushing the woman’s face in one blow.

He did not have much time to revel in the kill. He licked his lips as he felt a euphoric tidal wave of emotions sweep over him but unfortunately his inattention only earned him a stab wound in the back. He let out an inhuman growl before he turned on the Team Aqua grunt that had stabbed him in the back with a knife. Not even bothering to acknowledge the knife lodged in his back, Ash grabbed the man’s arm and shot his aura power up into the man. The over powered aura charge shattered the man’s bones from inside out. White fragments of bone shot up through the skin of the man all across his body as he shrieked in pain. 

The wild eyed trainer turned his head from the two dead Aqua members to the remaining ones on the compound grounds. Their faces ranged from determination to fear upon witnessing the man’s power. Ash started to laugh a loud as he looked across the opposition. “You? You are what is between me and my precious Leaf?” His laughter was momentarily cut off when a crossbow bolt impacted his arm, hitting him right in his forearm. With the aura active he barely felt the hit.

‘What is this? Pain? No that can’t be right these people are dead.’ He finished his thought aloud. “Dead people can’t cause pain!” With an inhuman screech he launched himself into the Aqua grunts…as before heedless of weapons. His arms and legs channeled his aura as he drove them into any grunt he came in contact with.

While Ash was busy with the Aqua grunts on the field Arcanine was facing down a particularly vicious Crawdaunt the rogue pokemon made up for its lack of speed with defense and power. Already there had been a few close calls from the Crawdaunt’s water gun and hydro pump attack. Arcanine though was hell bent on flash frying the troublesome shell fish despite the type advantage by using constant flame thrower attacks. The giant lion dog pokemon glanced over to its ally Lucario who was currently engaged in a fight with a horde of Pawniard led by a Bisharp.

Lucario gracefully danced out of the way from another Pawniard’s attack before viciously slamming his hand spike into the Pawniard’s face. “Cario!” He shouted in frustration over the fact every time he took one down it seemed two more appeared to take its place. “PAAAAWWWWN!” Lucario looked up as a rogue Pawniard came down with a devastating brick break attack. Luckily Pikachu was not engaged in its own battle and fried the Pawniard with a thunderbolt.

Pikachu gave the Lucario a thumbs up before Pikachu suddenly jumped to the side using agility to avoid a scald attack from one of the Aqua’s Buizel. “Pikkkkkkaaaa CHU!” The electric rodent blasted the Buizel back with another thunder bolt. The small electric rodent grinned a moment at its handiwork before looking for its trainer.

Ash was knee deep in bodies and seemed to be having a grand old time. All thoughts of saving May…or was it Leaf? Had left his mind. Instead he was enjoying the fighting his aura kept his various wounds from letting him bleed out. At this point Ash was covered in cuts and bruises from the head to toe. The only thing left untouched for the most part was his face though it was more from luck than any type of self-preservation. He flicked the brain matter off the end of one of his hands as he finished off the most recent wave of Team Aqua grunts. The remaining grunts had taken a decidedly more cautious approach after watching their team mates torn asunder by the crazed man.

“Come on! I’ll take you all on!” Ash grinned when he noticed the group forming a plan. ‘Like little ants…they believe they can smite God with enough planning.’ He let himself fall deeper into the madness and felt the aura take over more and more of he being. His thoughts and feelings retreated and his baser instincts came to the surface…rend apart flesh, kill the enemy, and survive.

 

Nicholai’s base of operations – Cell room

May glanced up when she heard the klaxon alarm going off throughout the small bunker like structure. A soft feminine voice came over the internal speakers. _“Intruder alert…lock down initiated T-minus 5 minutes. Intruder alert, all personnel to stations.”_ May let a small smile cross her face as she thought of Ash her knight in shining armor once more arriving to save the day and keep her safe.

The young trainer turned to the girl that was still huddled up next to May for comfort and shot Sarah a bright smile. “Ash is here! I just know he is and he going to rescue us!” She exclaimed trying to get Sarah to get her mind off of Butch’s threats.

“You really think so? I hope you are right. Though it could be big brother…he never was one for stealthy entrances.” Sarah shot a tentative smile at the older girl. Inside though she was trembling with fear, she did not want the Aqua members that had been in the cell earlier to come back.

Luck was not with the two as not a moment later the door opened. In stepped Butch…alone and without Cassidy. A leering grin came over his face as his eyes rover over the two young girls with unchecked lust. The teal haired man licked his lips once before he released his Primeape. “Just a little insurance so you no one interferes with my fun.” He shot a leering grin at the two girls.

Butch took no notice of the two girls trying to withdraw from his reach further into the cell.  Instead he continued to walk around the room studying the two girls, his eyes roving over their bodies. “Now I just need you two to separate for me.” He shot what he felt was a disarming smile towards May. “I will get to you don’t worry…but my tastes…tend to be on the younger side. Ms. Stone do you have those clearance codes?” He laughed a little before he threw out another pokeball and released his Hitmontop into the cell. “I guess it doesn’t matter I am going to fuck it out of you!”

The two girls pressed their backs up against the wall. Overhead they both heard the automated voice again over the loudspeaker. _“Lock down complete, all entrances sealed, lock down complete, all entrances sealed. Interior defenses online.”_ The two shared a worried look with each other, their thoughts both going to the idea neither wanted to voice, the fact that their chance of a rescue just went to nil with a complete shutdown of the facility.

Butch grinned at the two girls before unlocking the cell door. “Noticed that did you? To answer your unspoken question your little hero is currently in the process of getting himself killed in some noble cause to free you two. Don’t worry  he will die soon enough.”

“NO! He will save us!” May screamed in defiance, the young girl shot to her feet and ran at Butch in an attempt to put the man down.

“Hitmontop…” Butch shot a look towards his pokemon while stepping back from the girl. “Restrain this girl until I am ready for her.”

“Chan Chan!” The spin top pokemon took the girl out with a low kick that sent May sprawling across the floor.

May fought back the tears that she felt pricking the sides of her eyes. She refused to cry or give in to this sick and twisted man. She tried to get back up but she suddenly felt a pressure on the small of her back. Turning her head in an attempt to see what was stopping her from getting up, she saw that the Hitmontop that had knocked her down had placed one of its feet on her back to keep her down.

Gengar slowly floated through the walls as an invisible presence. It surveyed the situation as it was unsure what was occurring. The ghost quickly realized whatever was occurring was not something that Ash would approve of. Though it could just go right in and incapacitate the man now…where would the fun in that be? “Gennnn Garrrr.” It grinned when it thought of the perfect thing for a sick individual. Gengar slowly floated down looking for a chance to attach itself to Butch’s shadow.

Sarah closed her eyes in fright feeling the Teal haired man standing over her. She prayed to anything she could think of to save her. Perhaps she was in luck because a moment later the door swung open to reveal two people in what appeared to be janitors.

Butch growled before turning around and noticing the two janitors that had intruded on his private time. “What the hell are you doing in here? This is a private area and off limits to the likes of you!” He pointed towards the duo with a jab of his finger. “Primeape!”

“Oh Botch!” The one janitor laughed a little.

“It’s Butch!” The teal haired man growled in disgust at his name being mispronounced again.

The second janitor stepped away from the first as both struck a pose. The duo started a song heedless of the glare that Butch was sending the two.

“Hutch we find your actions deplorable!”

“So we are here to protect this world from your kind of evil!”

“To defend the defenseless from your perversion!”

“To put an end to your twisted plans!”

“To extend our fists into your face!”

“Jessie!”

“James...”

“Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!”

“Surrender now or prepare to fight!”

The duo threw off their janitor disguises and revealed the twin terrors. Jessie and James immediately threw forth their poke balls. “Go Mime Jr!” “Go Seviper!” 

The two rocket pokemon appeared in a blast of red light. While Serviper appeared ready to fight, James’s pokemon immediately returned to his trainer and hugged the lavender haired man. James awkwardly patted the pokemon and just shrugged nervously at the look Jessie was giving him. “What do you want? He likes me.”

Jessie sighed in frustration before returning her attention to the man in the room. A sadistic smile sliding over her face before Jessie addressed Butch. “Well well Bitch, I was hoping to catch Cassidy, that fucking bitch needs an attitude adjustment, but from what we stumbled in on, I believe you will be a fine target for my frustrations.” Jessie then pointed her finger towards Primeape. “Go Serviper! Show that pig monkey what happens when it aids and abets someone that likes touching little girls!”

“Seviper!” The purple poison snake pokemon sprung onto the Primeape, it quickly wrapped its way around the pig monkey’s body and started to immediately use wrap. Butch’s Primeape attempted to get free by biting into the snake pokemon but to no avail.

Butch growled at his stupidity for only bringing in two of his pokemon. The only other pokemon were the girls and if he tried to use them, they would surely turn on him. He immediately identified the weak link of the group. With Jessie’s pokemon fighting with Primeape it left James practically defenseless with that baby pokemon. “Hitmontop take out Mime Jr. and James! Get in with Close Combat!”

Hitmontop immediately responded to Butch’s command and left its position by May and rushed the duo. “Top Top Top!” The spintop pokemon was almost on top of the two when James sacrificed himself for his Mime Jr. The lavender haired ex rocket quickly got in front of his baby pokemon and tucked himself in ready to take the hit.

James braced for impact and a moment later he felt the blows rain down all over his body. Managing to hold back from screaming in pain he held on until Hitmontop stopped its close combat attack and withdrew from James. Without the fists and feet keeping his body up with their upwards blows, James felt himself collapse to the ground right by Mime Jr. The little pokemon looked on with worry at its trainer.

Managing a small smile he coughed a little, blood flecking across his lips. “Don’t you worry Mime Jr. I am here to protect you no matter what!”

Butch snorted at the pathetic display presented before him. He shot Jessie a grin before commenting on the situation. “Pathetic…even with the element of surprise you two couldn’t take me down. No wonder Giovanni never sent you on important missions.” Butch turned to Hitmontop. “Help Primeape out and then finish the these two off.” Butch satisfied that his orders would be carried out started to strip off his clothing.

The red haired trainer didn’t know what to do. She and James were always good at stealth operations. Outright power struggles for the two rarely ended well which is why the two were so great at retreating or as she liked to call it advancing in the opposite direction. Still she could not leave these girls to this monster even if they would die trying to stop him.

James cough caught her attention as she tried to figure out what to do. She quickly turned her attention to her wounded comrade. James shot her a smile as tried to pull off the ground. “Guess we really aren’t much of anything without that damn talking cat.”

“No we really aren’t.” Jessie put a smile on her face before she managed to catch May slowly working her way towards the pokeballs on the desk. A grin slid over her face. “Why not go out with a bang though!” She turned her attention to Serviper who was valiantly attempting to hold off both of the fighting types. “Seviper! Use sludge wave on the entire room!” The poison type did not question it’s trainer as it shot a steady stream of sludge into the room. The wayward attack managed to keep everyone on their toes and served as an excellent distraction.

“Gen Gen Gar….” The purple ghost pokemon grinned when it saw its chance to intercede without accidently being targeted by the man’s pokemon. It managed to become one with Butch’s shadow. When it was ready it let loose a long ghastly howl.

“Wha…What?” Butch turned around only to see his shadow staring back at him. Only it looked completely demonic with blazing red eyes and a mouth full of needle sharp teeth. “Geeeeennnnn GAR!” He only had a moment to realize what was happening before he was pulled into his own shadow. He continued to scream in horror as he was sucked further and further into his own shadow. Butch’s hands clawed around the edges of his shadow before they disappeared completely.

Gengar grinned in amusement over the man’s screams. Now the man was in it’s world…a cold world that did not follow the rules of the world above. “Gen Gen Gar.” It said softly before the shadow of Butch disappeared from the world of the living as well.

May managed to get through the spray of acid without getting hit. She turned around once she reached her pokeballs and threw them forwards. Her eyes went wide momentarily watching Butch sink into his shadow. ‘What the fuck?’ She thought for a moment before shaking it off, there were more important things to handle right now. “Go Beautifly use psychic on Hitmontop! Munchlax use psychic on Primeape!”

May’s pokemon obeyed without question and used their psychic attacks on Hitmontop and Primeape. The two unsuspecting fighting types were hit full on by the attack. Within a minute of sustained contact with the super effective attacks the two pokemon went limp. Both of their brains had been fried by May’s pokemon. “Alright good work you two!”

The room fell into awkward silence as the two groups assessed one another. Sarah and May stood on one side with her pokemon ready to fight if need be while James and Jessie stood on the other side with their pokemon.

James laughed a little as he slowly stood up, most of his body weight being supported by Jessie. “The rescuers end up rescued just like old times eh Jessie?”

Jessie smirked slightly before adjusted James so his weight was more evenly disbursed across her body. “Now then! You two! We are here to rescue you and you better be damn grateful for what poor James had to put himself through!”

May just glared at the two members that were currently in what appeared to be old Team Rocket uniforms. It was Sarah who voiced May’s thoughts though. “I thank you for rescuing us, we will forever be in your debt, but how do we know you are trustworthy? For all we know you could just be leading us into a trap.” The youngest Stone leveled the two with a questioning gaze.

“Why you little brat! How dare you question the motives of the most talented masters of disguise this side of Kanto!” Jessie let her anger get to her and she almost dropped poor James in the process. Luckily James was always the level headed of the two and despite rarely asserting himself over Jessie, he felt this was one of those times.

The bludgeoned man gently placed took Jessie’s outstretched hand with the free arm of his that was not slung over Jessie’s shoulder. “Jessie.” He stopped the angry red haired with a gentle look. Once he assured himself of Jessie’s compliance he returned his attention to May and Sarah. He debated how much to let out but in the interest of time he decided to condense the information.

“We are friends of Ash Ketchum, Elite Ranger of Kanto. In fact to be quite blunt we are his spies and contacts for the League currently operating in Team Aqua and we risked quite a bit to get you two out of here. So if you are quite done we need to get out of here!” James looked between the two girls just daring one of them to contradict him.

“You know Ash?” May was thoroughly shocked that the two were associates of Ash. ‘Wait a second spies for Ash and the league? I thought Ash said that he was retired and no longer working.’ Her fist curled in anger for a moment. ‘OOoooh Ash Ketchum you are going to have some explaining to do.’ She finally looked up and noticed she was missing the conversation between these two and Sarah.

“So how do you propose we get out of here exactly?” Sarah glanced around the room finding no real way to blast out the building. May was also left wondering how the two ex-Rockets were planning on extracting them…after all the building was on lock down currently.

The two shared a smile before responding together. “Why through a tunnel of course!” With that the two rockets headed back to the door. Taking a moment to make sure the coast was clear they silently waved the girls on before disappearing through the door way.

Sarah glanced at May as she was still unsure what to do about the whole situation. “So do we follow them?”

The brunette thought about it for a moment before deciding that if they knew everything about Ash they must not be all bad. “They know my traveling partner and seem to know more than an average member here. Butch and Cassidy made no mention of him. I feel if he was that well known they would have made a comment. I say we go for it…but we keep alert.”

The two girls followed Jessie and James out of the holding cell that Butch disappeared in, leaving behind a dead Primeape and Hitmontop.

 

 

Petalburg Woods – Clearing

 

 

Steven Stone sat atop his Metagross in silent meditation. The champion of the Hoenn league and successor to the Devon Corporation normally used his time in transit to practice his meditation exercises to keep himself in a calm frame of mind. The meditation especially assisted him in dealing with the two stressful positions he had to maintain.

A small smile crossed his face at the thought of finally getting some time alone with his grandparents and his little sister. Of course as always he was running late but luckily if anyone understood it was his grandparents. The two had started the illustrious Devon Corporation after all so they both knew what it took to keep the company running in tip top shape.

“Meta” Steven’s Metagross spoke up when they were nearing the clearing. The pokemon suddenly became agitated though and initiated the psychic link it held with its trainer.  Unlike most psychic type trainers this was not Steven’s preferred method of communication. Mostly due to the fact he liked people to stay out of his mind thank you very much. With such a public persona he treasured what little privacy he had left. _“Master…I apologize but ahead the fields are smoking I worry for little Miss and the old Master and Mistress.”_

Good old Metagross was always formal to a fault. Steven could not count the number of times he informed his pokemon to call him by his first name but now was not the time to remind the Steel/Psychic type. “Forward Metagross full speed ahead and prepare for battle!”

Steven quickly clambered from a sitting position to a standing position. It was a testament to his skills and reflexes that he was able to stand on his Metagross going full speed while dodging incoming tree branches. Steven stared in wide eyed horror when they burst out into the field. It appeared as though a full on battle had taken place in the field. Scorched earth and trees turned to splinters. The grass was mostly trampled upon. The next thing to catch his eye was the sight of his grandfather by his grandmother’s side and see appeared to be unmoving.

“Grandfather! Are you alright?” He warily eyed the remaining pokemon that appeared to be injured but now on guard with the new comer. None of these pokemon belonged to His grandparents nor Sarah. ‘Wait Sarah! Where is she?” He quickly scanned the field but to no avail he saw a young boy who appeared to be a new trainer and a young man that was until now attending the pokemon.

“Yes Steven I am alright…your grandmother was killed though…we were attacked by some filthy bastards that laid a trap.” The older gentleman slowly stood up and ran a hand through his signature steel colored hair. His whole face appeared weary like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. The older Stone spared a sad glance towards his dead wife before turning to face his grandson. “These people here saved us…but they took Sarah and this young lad’s sister in their retreat.” The older gentleman gestured towards Max. “One of their members Ash went after them…”

Steven’s eyes widened in surprise at the turn of events and over the suddenness of his grandmother’s death. ‘She was alive this morning…god fucking dammit! If I was only a little faster a little earlier!’ Steven’s hand curled into a fist as he channeled all of his anger into that fist. It took all of his self-control not to scream in rage over the whole catastrophe. ‘What the fuck is the point of being Champion when you are unable to protect the ones you love.’ Steven made up his mind…he would back this Ash up and help him save Sarah. “Which way did they go?”

The Champion of Hoenn only took the time to set his gaze on the direction before turning his attention to Metagross. “Go Metagross we will rescue Sarah at any cost!”

Brock attempted to gain the older man’s attention before he left but to no avail. “Wait!” Brock called out but he got no response except the sound of crashing trees as Metagross barreled through the undergrowth and anything that stood in its way. “Shit…”

The rock type specialist only had a moment to recover before Mewtwo suddenly materialized in front of him practically giving Brock a heart attack. “Holy shit! Where the fuck did you come from?”

The psychic pokemon leveled the rock type trainer with a glare before holding out one of his three fingered hands. _“The gloves.”_ It spoke through Brock’s mind and patiently waited for Brock to pull the inhibitor gloves out from his vest and place it in Mewtwo’s hand before the pokemon disappeared again.

Brock let out a breath he did not know he was holding in. ‘Fucking shit…every god damn time that twisted bastard of a pokemon scares the hell out of me.’ The tanned ex-gym leader took a moment to count his lucky stars that Mewtwo did not travel with Ash on a regular basis. He only had a moment more to recover before he realized what it meant if Mewtwo was here…Ash was on a rampage.

“Brock what….what was that?” Brock’s thought process was broken by Max’s question. Unfortunately the gym trainer was not in a very informative mood. He was worried about Ash and May. If Ash was in that kind of condition who knew what was happening. “That was Mewtwo…” It was the only explanation Brock answered before going deeper into thought. It left Mr. Stone and Max just as confused as when the pokemon that neither had ever seen appeared before them.

 

Nicholai’s base of operations – Outside

 

Lucario jumped back from another strike that the Bisharp attempted in an effort to put down the fighting type. Despite the type disadvantage his adversary had given him a type battle. The Bisharp came in with a metal claw attack attempting to rend Lucario apart.

Lucario countered the strike with a bone rush. The hard bone staff that Lucario produced being used as a guard against the metal claw strike from Bisharp. “Cario!” The jackal pokemon dissipated his bone rush the moment the metal claw attack faded from the Bisharp’s blade like hand. Lucario came in with close combat and sent the Bisharp flying.

“Cario…” The jackal pokemon glared at the Bisharp daring it to get up again. Once he was satisfied that the Bisharp was down for the count he used calm mind to bring himself into a calm state. His eyes closed and he sent out his aura to track the flow of the battle. Prior to this moment his entire aura had been concentrated on his own part of the battlefield he had no time to spread his senses out before spreading out his aura.

“Cario!” The jackal pokemon cried out in alarm before quickly retracting his aura. The moment his aura had touched his master’s he felt a sense of wrongness…instead of peaceful and calm blue there was only rage and red. Lucario had only felt this once before…on Cinnabar Island when his master first attuned himself to the aura. He looked on to see Ash in complete blood lust…and worse it appeared his team mate Pikachu was also affected by the aura. The little yellow rodent appeared to be falling into madness just like its trainer.

Lucario turned to feel out Arcanine but luckily the lion dog pokemon had not spent enough time in close proximity to its trainer to become infected by the madness. Unlike Arcanine, Pikachu, had been with Ash when his trainer had started to gain his aura ability during the Cinnabar massacre. Pikachu already had a long sustained dose of the red rage of Ash’s aura. This second dose was only driving Pikachu closer to the edge of madness.

“Lu! Cario!” The aura pokemon got Arcanine’s attention before he quickly forced his team mate back further from the battle and from Ash’s aura. Lucario could protect himself but it would put too much strain on him to keep Arcanine safe in close proximity. This was now Pikachu and Ash’s battle unless the two pokemon wanted to succumb to the madness. There was one thing Lucario could do. When he had judged that enough distance had been placed between himself and his master he channeled his aura into a single pulse. A call for the one pokemon that could possibly suppress Ash long enough to cut his aura off with the inhibitor gloves that Ash normally wore.

Lucario could only pray that Mewtwo would arrive in time to save their master from being lost in the aura. If Ash spent too much time under the aura’s influence even the gloves may not be able to bring him back. To use aura one had to have complete control over the aura for one slip and the aura would take control making it the master of one’s body. The aura pokemon had learnt this lesson back during its training by as a Riolu.

Ash and Pikachu had no idea about Lucario’s concern in fact the two had little on their minds further than the battle. Ash laughed aloud as he stepped back and observed his handiwork. The nightmarish scene reflected what one would see only in the worst wars. Body parts littered the ground that had no discernible relation to a certain body part. He had seen to that…and the fear…the fear on these men’s eyes was intoxicating. The only thing he did not understand was why they continued to fight the inevitable. Pikachu rode on his shoulder just like his trainer the yellow rodent was now slick in other people’s blood. In fact with the red tinted eyes and blood stained pelt they only way to know it was a Pikachu was from his shape.

“You all die like good little soldiers yet you still come one by one, two by two. In some foolish attempt to murder a God! Do you not understand it is hopeless?” Ash spoke more to himself than to the grunts in front of him. ‘They will all die for what they did!...wait what have they done?’ He was momentarily concerned as he could not remember why he was killing them. The worry though was washed away in another wave of red aura. ‘No matter it is the will of a God to destroy his people or those they challenge him.’ A twisted grin came over his face as he suddenly disappeared with Pikachu.

The remaining grunts had not time to react before one suddenly screamed in pain. The man’s eyes bulged out as he stared down at a hand coming through his chest. “Shit!” The grunt cried before the man suddenly withdrew it hand back into his body cavity.

“Pathetic little ants! Your only use is to be squished beneath my might!” Ash let loose a demonic laugh before he let his aura charge in his hand before expanding it into the man’s body cavity. He reveled in the delicious screams before the man’s body literally exploded outwards covering the remaining grunts in the scraps of bloody meat.

One of the remaining grunts fell to the ground screaming in terror. The whole fight had gone wrong from the start but the young woman realized there was no hope. Her screams were cut off from a quick iron tail coming down across her throat. The attack soon parted the head from the body. The young woman’s head rolled away from the force of the blow. The woman’s face locked in a look of horror in her final moments.

Ash giggled a little as he observed the two remaining grunts. Both were armed with short swords and both looked scared shitless. “Your God is merciful…I will allow you two strikes against your God.” Ash shot a disarming smile towards the two. “Two strikes and I will not strike back. If you kill me you shall live…if you don’t…well…” With that Ash gestured to the remains that littered the grounds around them.

The two grunts looked at each other for a moment before they took their chance. Both rushed forward with their swords drawn. In unison both men pushed their blades into the man’s chest. The aura though managed to divert the blades upon entering Ash’s body from hitting vital organs. Without the aura keeping his patchwork of wounds held together and from bleeding out Ash would have been dead long ago. Using his brutal style he had acquired more and more wounds as the battle went on. In fact without the aura parts of his body would be hanging limb and broken bones would have fallen apart from the continued abuse put upon them.

He grunted upon the impact. At first the grunts appeared to think they had won until Ash started to laugh. “I told you to kill me! You have to mean it! Like this!” Ash grabbed both of their heads with his hands before he channeled his aura through his fingers and through the men’s skulls. The two cried out in pain before collapsing…dead.

Ash took one look around the battlefield before he sensed him. “Mewtwo…you know you can not stand up to the powers of a God.” He spoke congenially with the psychic pokemon that had suddenly appeared behind him in a wave of psychic power.

 _“Ash…you fool you knew the risks yet you did it anyway.”_ The psychic pokemon regarded its master with disdain. Despite the fact that Mewtwo respected Ash for his power, it did not agree with its master’s inability to think ahead. It spoke aloud this time instead of through the psychic link. “I warned you…if the inhibitors do not work this time I will have to contain you Ash you know this.”

“Pikkkkkaaaaa!” The little electric rodent appeared by his trainer’s side. The blood bathed rodent’s electric pouches started to spark in warning.

Mewtwo eyes lit up with surprise for a moment before a look of sadness crossed its face. “Pikachu…I am sorry…” It extended an arm before using psychic energy to restrain the small pokemon. If Ash could not be brought back, Mewtwo would now have to kill one of its team members as well. The madness could not be allowed to spread any further. Mewtwo extended his other arm and attempted to subdue its trainer.

Ash’s eyes narrowed and he responded to Mewtwo in kind. He pressed back against Mewtwo’s psychic energy with his own aura. The two powers were locked in mortal combat neither side giving in. Fortunately for Mewtwo a distraction presented itself.

“Oh my god Ash!” May screamed out upon the sight that greeted her. Pikachu visibly restrained by psychic energy and Ash locked in combat with an unknown pokemon. What was worse Lucario and Arcanine appeared to be doing nothing to stop this attack. It was when Ash turned to her that she knew something was wrong with him. He looked…crazy. The moment Ash turned to face them Jessie and James drew in a sharp breathe. 

“We have to leave! He is no longer in control of himself!” Jessie grabbed both the girls and started to drag them back the way they came.

May started to struggle against the taller woman and beat against her arm. “Let me go! I need to help Ash! Help him!” She screamed at Jessie in rage.

James placed his hand on May’s shoulder and once again immediately took control with his tone. “No! You need to allow Mewtwo to stop this! He is not Ash right now and only that pokemon can stop him!” May let herself be pulled back against her will.

“Ash! Please!” The brunette trainer cried out once more hoping that she would receive a response from him.

Ash completely ignored Mewtwo now. ‘Leaf! Leaf is alive I knew it!’ A smile crossed his face as he started to run towards Leaf. The moment his attention was off Mewtwo though he suddenly felt himself restrained in psychic energy. Mewtwo appeared in front of him a moment later. Despite his struggles he felt the gloves slip onto his hands. The moment that the aura was cut off the shock caused the young trainer to pass out. The last thing Ash saw was May struggling against Jessie and James to try and get to him. ‘What are they doing here?’ With that final thought he surrendered to the darkness.

 

A/N: Hey…alright so sorry kinda lied about getting to the aura…next chapter I swear! I will also get the gang to Rustboro and out of Petalburg Woods. I swear it…no I oath it! I may get to a gym battle…umm possibly. I will probably at least introduce Roxanne…oh what am I saying?  It is all lies everything takes at least one chapter longer to get to then I plan. So next chapter we will flash back to the aura, have Ash recover, May will question a lot, Steven will be questioning as well, Jessie and James may also explain some things, annnnd Brock will be Brock. I will also be dropping off Max at Rustboro so don’t expect to see him for a while. Finally do not expect a chapter update next week I will be traveling home for Easter. If I post one feel special. Oh and feel free to review if you have any thoughts on anything. If not no worries I am appreciative enough with the visitors! 


	8. Rustboro City - Sand Veil

A/N: On to Chapter 8! The group is finally in Rustboro! This chapter introduces the Aura Guardians and as you will see not everything is black and white in this world. I will try to get in some solid May/Ash time soon. New poll up regarding if Brock will be with anyone so please vote on that. Other than that thank you for the reviews and ideas everyone!

­Chapter 8 - Rustboro City- Sand Veil

 

Verdanturf Town – 2 weeks ago

A young man sat in a cross legged position. He let his aura stretch out from the hill top. Using his aura he could feel the presence of every creature in the surrounding area and even the wind flowing through the valley. He did enjoy when he was assigned to the Western region of Hoenn. The young man especially when he got the chance to stop in Verdanturf Town for a chance to rest. The sleepy little town was by far his favorite place. The young Aura Guardian’s name was Erik and he was assigned to the Western region of Hoenn. Letting out a content sigh he pushed his aura out further and further.

Erik’s eyes shot open in surprise when his aura spread across the Petalburg Woods. ‘This can’t be right! Can it?’ He lost control of his aura and groaned a bit from the sudden implosion of his aura. He cupped his head in his one hand from the sudden onset of a headache. Unfortunately he was not as seasoned as some of the older aura guardians and did not have the control that comes with experience and age.

 Erik glanced over to his Meinshao after he recovered to confirm that his pokemon had felt the same thing. The normally calm pokemon had apparently also sensed the burst of uncontrolled aura as well. Her ears were perked up and she had already turned to face the direction in which the aura was generating from.

“Meinshao were any of the other Aura Guardians scheduled to be in the western region of Hoenn?”

The ferret like pokemon shook its head before indicating that Erik should once again tap into his aura. The martial arts pokemon seemed to be agitated by whatever it felt. _“There is something wrong coming from the aura.”_ Meinshao spoke through their aura bond.

“Alright alright…hold on.” He shot his Meinshao a glare before he closed his eyes and expanded his aura again. This time he expanded it at a slower pace until he reached the source of the disturbance. What he felt wasn’t natural at all. The closest thing he could peg it to was madness, insanity, and rage. The aura wasn’t coming off the individual in normal waves. Instead it was coming out erratically and inconsistently as if the individual was untrained.

The young man was up like a shot the moment he realized what it was…the features of the aura could only belong to a group of Red Aura users. ‘I thought that branch of users was extinguished centuries ago by the Aura Guardians of old!’ He pushed further trying to pinpoint the source and identify the user but before he could go further a powerful psychic force appeared in the area and interrupted his connection. A moment later the source of the aura seemed to cut off completely as if it was suddenly capped at the source. The moment the connection was severed he withdrew his aura and turned to his Meinshao. Erik’s worry was mirrored on Meinshao’s face from both the unknown psychic force well and above anything he had ever encountered and the unknown aura that came from a dead branch of Aura users “Let’s go Meinshao!  We have to alert the counsel of this manner!”

In a flash the two were gone from the rolling hills just outside of Verdanturf town. The breeze blew through the long grass wiping away any evidence that they were ever there.

Donto Island – Aura Guardian Base

Erik reappeared in a blast of Aura. Unlike his smooth departure from Verdanturf Town his reappearance was rather sloppy. The younger Guardian just did not have the power to retain a smooth jump over such a long distance. After catching himself from falling down by holding onto Meinshao he took a moment to catch his breath. Sweat was visibly dripping off of him from exerting so much power in such a short time.

He finally recovered enough to stand on his own to observe his surroundings. The home of the Hoenn Aura Guardians had been selected for the seclusion and there was no better place than Donto Island. Other than the small harbor on the Southern side of the island there were no further settlements. The base had been hidden away on the Northern side of the island away from the small settlement and harbor. The base had been built into the side of a cliff at the bottom of a dry ravine and from the outside appeared to just be part of the cliff. Even from above the base blended right into the natural landscape.

Luckily Erik knew better. The young trainer made his way up to the sheer rock face and placed his hand on a dark ring that seemed to be embedded into the rock. He pulsed his aura into the stone and only had to wait a moment before the rock face started to split in two in front of his eyes. The hole was large enough for a man to get through. Meinshao and Erik disappeared into the base beyond, the rock face closed behind the Aura Guardian without a sound to alert anyone to its location.

It had taken a while to fully explain everything to Riley and it had taken hours longer to bring the Aura Guardians in Hoenn area together for the council meeting. The Aura Guardians in Sinnoh and Unova were unable to attend due to the great distance from Hoenn. Even so the full complement of Aura Guardians from Hoenn was in attendance making up a group of 16 Aura Guardians.

Riley observed the Aura Guardians that had filed into the war room. The Guardians ranged from newly minted to battle hardened veterans that had made it through the Rocket wars in one piece…more or less. Riley’s ever faithful Lucario stood by his side and on his other side stood Erik. The young man was the cause of this meeting. Riley closed his eyes in thought for a moment; he had not expected the day to turn out like this at all but there was little he could do but forge onwards.

The man in the blue suit waited a moment longer for the other Aura Guardians to take their seats before he spoke up in a clear and calm voice to bring everyone to attention.

“Thank you for making it here on such short notice. As the Captain of the Hoenn Aura Guardians I bring this meeting to order.”

“I hope this is good Riley…I have been bored as late.” A gruff looking man smirked at the younger Guardian. The older man was missing one of his eyes and had a red patch across where his eye used to be. Aurion Red Eye was one of the oldest active members and probably one of the strongest. He was a bear of a man that despite his thick frame was quite quick in a pinch. The man also had long blonde curls that went to his shoulders. The man dressed in the traditional Aura Guardian’s uniform contrasting the more modern uniforms the other Guardians wore that matched Riley’s in style. It was well known Aurion loved a challenge and enjoyed a fight even more.

One of the other Guardians turned to Aurion with a dour expression upon her face. She always appeared as if she had eaten something sour and her attitude was not much better. “Do us all a favor and retire you old fossil.” There was no mirth or even a hint of warmth behind her attitude.

“Ghul…Aurion please peace.” Riley decided to intervene before an all-out shouting match between the two began. Out of all the Guardians their personalities caused the two to clash on almost every subject. “Our youngest Guardian Erik came across some rather disturbing news while patrolling the Western edge of Hoenn. He has described an Aura that no one has felt since the Rocket wars.”

The blue suited Aura Guardian took a moment to let his words sink in. He absent mindedly adjusted his hat before he continued. “He touched an Aura that was full of rage and anger. If what he felt is what happened in Cinnabar it is our duty to stop this user before he or she brings the same destruction to our nation as Kanto felt.”

“You mean a user of the Red Aura?” Aurion asked Riley, his eye clearly showed disbelief. “There branch was wiped out centuries ago! If it is an awakened member that was missed we must deal with the problem now!” The grizzled Guardian banged his fist on the table to make his point clear.

Ghul just huffed at Aurion’s overly dramatic manner. “Calm down you old fool. Are we to take the word of a young child that they felt the Aura of Red?” The black haired woman leveled her icy gaze at the young man in question. Her steel colored eyes seemed to search Erik for a moment before she snorted. “The young pup is just over reacting and came running back when he felt something powerful. It was probably just the psychic pokemon he felt interrupting his untrained senses.” The younger woman conjectured.

Erik felt his face turn red over the whole conversation. He responded to Ghul’s provocations and glared at the Aura Guardian that was not much older than him. “I know what I felt and it was an Aura that felt wrong!”

“Of course of course…” Once again the dark haired woman dismissed the younger man.

Riley sighed in annoyance this is what he hated about full meetings. Still it was his job to bring things back on task. “Regardless of your feelings Ghul, I am worried enough regarding this situation that I will be dispatching Aurion and Erik to scout out and try to locate the source. Due to Red, brick walling the Guardians from establishing a presence in Kanto and Johto, we still are unsure of what occurred to the Aura User from Cinnabar.”

“I still say you let me teach that asshole a thing or two about respecting the Aura Guardians.” Aurion ground out in annoyance. The man was a bit source regarding the subject. “That we have been denied operation from our own place of origin. It is a slap in the face and I for one say that if this atrocity of an Aura user is traced back to Red we reestablish a presence in Kanto by force!” 

“So short sighted as always Aurion…you would throw away the lives of Aura Guardians to salve your bruised ego.” Ghul muttered while crossing her arms across her chest. The olivine skinned woman settled with glaring at the man that resembled a Viking of old. “Be thankful that the other regions have not followed in the policies set down by Kanto and Johto. Our existence is fragile enough as it is. No reason to give Stone a reason to follow in Red’s footsteps.”

“Regardless on Red’s stance on Guardians operating within his region. It is necessary that we investigate and terminate any threats to both the Aura Guardians and Hoenn as a whole.” Riley stood up signifying that the meeting was coming to a close. “I will alert the other regions. Aurion take Erik with you and see if you can track down this source. If you get a solid shot at terminating the source go for it but I rather get a report prior to termination. Ghul…your absence will be noticed by Koga and Ketchum and they will surely be curious about the emergency meeting. Please report to them and garner any information you can from them regarding the possibility of a user of the Red Aura. Everyone else resume your posts if the user enters your territory call for reinforcements immediately.”

The Aura Guardians departed from the meeting. Riley disappeared to make contact with the other Captains from Sinnoh and Unova. Aurion and Erik disappeared off towards the Western region of Hoenn and finally Ghul disappeared to meet with the displaced Rocket leaders.

 

Rustboro City – Rustboro Hospital – E.R.

“Multiple lacerations to his chest and signs of internal bleeding from the patient. We will have to open him up further to find the source.” A Doctor calmly stated before he started to clean the skin for an incision. “I need him under 10 minutes ago!”

Ash could barely make out what was going on. Everything was blurry and all he could really see was white. He felt so tired…perhaps if he just closed his eyes and let everything go. The only thing currently holding him together was Mewtwo. He felt a mask being placed over his face and suddenly the world blacked out again.

_“Thunder!” Ash yelled out to his loyal electric rodent. Pikachu sent out a devastating column of pure electrical energy in all directions to clear out the remaining contingent of Rocket pokemon in this section. A Machamp and Vulpix fell down still smoking from the electrical attack. Ash grinned momentarily distracted which cost him with another blow to the face._

_He almost relished the pain…it was the only way he knew he was still alive right now. He silently thanked the grunt for assuring him that he was still among the living before he brought his hand up and grabbed the woman’s arm on the rebound. With a vicious grin he pulled her in towards him and right into his combat knife. “This is going to hurt. I suggest you take this time to pray.”_

_The shock of the blow from the knife into her abdomen only lasted a moment before Ash started to split the grunt up the middle with the knife’s serrated edge. Her screaming continued until Ash reached her throat. After he was satisfied with his work he pulled his knife out…or at least tried. “God dammit got it stuck again!” Ash dug a heel into the body of the grunt and started to pull back to pull the knife out. After a solid minute of work he managed to work the knife out. Flicking the blood away he managed a glare at his snickering pokemon. “Oh shut up…not all of us have the equivalent of a lightning bolt as a built in weapon.”_

_“Pikkka!” Pikachu stated in a smug tone before he went about cleaning his fur which was a futile act it in itself. The electric rat was completely red at this point even his brown fur was soaked through._

_Ash surveyed the scene to check for any survivors. This was the 4 th patrol that they had come across. The last two patrols had almost been right on top of each other. “We must be getting close to their main base.” The dark haired Ranger stated. “Time to bring your A game Pikachu, next stop Rocket base! Remember to keep your guard up…and keep track of your kills we will compare who has the most after we will the remaining Rockets.” _

_The two shot grins at each other. Both of them were absolutely covered in blood and covered in various wounds and bruises. The partners knew neither was coming out of this alive but it helped to keep them motivated. Besides with Leaf dead and his mother dead he really had nothing left to survive for._

_It happened less than two blocks from the last patrol. One moment the streets of the City were devoid of life. The next moment Rocket Grunts were appearing from every direction. They got him while he was in an intersection. Ash and Pikachu halted their forward progress. So far none of the Rockets appeared to be ready to attack but that could change in a moment’s notice._

_The situation appeared quite grim and to a normal human being this would be cause for worry. Unfortunately or fortunately Ash and Pikachu had no such qualms about losing their lives as long as they took some Rockets down with them. The trainer did not know it but he was starting to leak a red Aura that would be unseen by any but those trained in Aura. If Lucario had been with his trainer he may have recognized the danger._

_“Well congratulations on making it so far. I would say I was impressed by your tenacity at making it this far…but you seem to be more like a bull in a proverbial china shop and less like a skilled battle hardened Ranger.” Giovanni stepped out from behind the ranks. The dark haired man had olivine skin and wore an unmistakable salmon colored suit. He had a permanent sneer on his face and looked on at the Ranger with contempt. “From what my scouts say you have caused us quite a bit of trouble before advancing on our base of operations here on Cinnabar. Surge despite his faults had his uses and it will be hard to replace him.”_

_Ash simply glowered at the man that was in charge of Team Rocket. He had been waiting a long time for this. A crooked smile replaced the rage as he adjusted his cap before regarding the Rocket force in front of him. “Surge underestimated me…I hope you make the same mistake. I have only so much time left and I want to make it count.” The dark haired trainer took a quick look into his surroundings to see what could be used to his advantage. Unfortunately there was not much to work with, this part of Cinnabar City was untouched being the main base of operations for Team Rocket. The citizens had not yet fled the highly populated area since none of the fighting had reached this deep into Rocket territory._

_“Yes well we shall certainly not do that here. Still you will have to suffer quite a bit for killing the good Lieutenant.” The former gym leader of Viridian City was sizing up the Ranger. The young man appeared familiar but none more than any of the other Rangers on Rocket’s hit list. Still there was something about him. The man’s musings were interrupted by said Ranger._

_“Stop worrying about Surge’s death it should be the last thing on your mind Giovanni! The real threat is in front of you!” Ash shot a grin towards Pikachu. “We may not make it through but we can give them one helluva repair bill.”_

_“Pi! Pika!” The electric rodent shot a grin back at his trainer. Pikachu knew this was likely their final stand. There never really was an end game for the two other than kill as many Rockets as possible to avenge Leaf. Self-preservation had left the two long ago and would never truly return._

_Giovanni let out a cold laugh at the display of bravado from the young Ranger. “Such courage from a League rat…I would offer you a place within Team Rocket but I would never turn away a young man’s request to throw his life away.” Giovanni turned away from Ash, the leader of Team Rocket had no real sense of the threat that was standing behind him now. He nodded to his commander as he disappeared within the ranks. “Destroy him.” A wicked smile crossed his face when he heard the calls for hyper beams and other various attacks. The young man would be torn apart in a matter of moments and he had more important things to worry about. A god damn Moltres was wrecking the Northern line and Lance was advancing through his Southern line._

_“Pikachu! Thunder!” Ash commanded, they both knew it was his last command. Time seemed to stand still as Pikachu started to spark drawing down a large column of yellow lightning. All around the pair different types of attacks were coming in towards them, they ranged from weaker razor leaf attacks to the all-powerful hyper beam. Ash closed his eyes to block out the blinding light that started to close in around the pair._

_Ash suddenly felt a warm glow surround him. His body reacting to danger started to glow blue. His eyes snapped open…’I can’t give up! It doesn’t have to end like this! Leaf wouldn’t want it to end like this!” He grasped the power it felt like a warm blanket but underneath he could feel something stronger. Something much stronger was hidden and he would have it! If he was to have a chance to truly avenge his Leaf he would sacrifice anything. Without her here there was no point in continuing on anyway._

_At first the blue aura resisted and attempted to divert his struggles to reach the true power resting within. The Ranger just pushed harder until he broke through the barrier. Perhaps he would have never reached this point if his need for vengeance was not so high or perhaps If he had something to live for he would have found another way. Alas it was not to be and Ash found what he was seeking. With a grin he embraced it…it felt all powerful and wiped away his cares, thoughts and worries ceased immediately. The aura took over his thinking. All he saw in front of him were threats…threats to his power._

_Without thinking the Ranger raised a shield of pure Red Aura. The shield absorbed every single attack which caused the grunts to look on in surprised. The shield seemed to glow for a second before the attacks that had been absorbed a moment before shot right back towards their owners._

_The front lines of Team Rocket were decimated by the all mighty and surprising turn of events. Ash giggled a little when he saw all the dead bodies in front of him. The aura allowed him to not only watch but literally feel the life leaking out of the broken bodies in front of him. It was intoxicating…the power. “Fools in your rush to kill me you have unleashed your own destruction!”_

_Without even looking Ash caught the crossbow bolt that one of the Rocket member’s had fired at him from the nearby building. He glanced at the offending bolt for a moment before he swept his arm forwards. A giant pulse of aura cut through the apartment building taking the civilians and Rocket snipers with it when the upper portion began to slide off the bottom half. The bisected building started to collapse sending people both innocent and guilty falling to the street._

_“You will have to try harder to kill me!” With a grin Ash ran through the decimated front lines and dove into the Rocket members. If he was using tactics he would have used the fact that the Rocket members were hesitant to attack for fear of hitting each other. Instead Ash would continue on a straight path of destruction towards Giovanni ignoring or shrugging off the wounds he was steadily accumulating._

 

Rustboro City – 2 weeks after the events at Petalburg Forest

 

Ash felt groggy as his eyes blinked trying to bring the room into focus. The bright lights automatically forced him to close his eyes before squinting. He couldn’t make out where he was and worse yet he could not remember how he got here. He had some fuzzy memories of being in the forest and then a mask. Then he had another flash back of his past.

“Awake are we?” An unfamiliar voice spoke just outside of his range of vision. Ash attempted to get up but instead found the entire experience dizzying and gave up before even lifting himself an inch off of the bed.

The recognizable form of Steven Stone appeared by Ash’s side. The Hoenn Champion gently placed a hand on Ash’s shoulder to keep him from trying to get up again. “Not quite yet Ash, you are still recovering from some extensive injuries. It was touch and go for a while, even with Mewtwo keeping your blood circulating during the surgeries.”

Steven found a chair next to Ash and took a seat before continuing on. “I must thank you for your assistance in rescuing my sister. It would have been most unfortunate if you had not pulled through.”

Ash stared blankly at Steven in response. ‘What is Steven talking about?’ He was still trying to recollect what had actually occurred as his memories of the entire event were muddled. It was like looking through murky water, bits and pieces were there but he could not put them together. Finally he gave it up as he could honestly not remember much of the day after meeting some man named Nicholai in the forest.

“Er…” Ash managed to rub the back of his head with his one hand which luckily did not cause too much pain. “Sorry to say Steven but I have no idea what you are talking about. Where is everyone else?”

“In good time Ash…just know they are safe and secure. I have some questions to ask first.” Steven was about to continue but he was interrupted before he could continue by another.

 _“Of course you don’t remember anything about Petalburg Woods, you idiot it is amazing you are alive.”_ A contemptuous voice came through a mental link. Luckily Ash and Steven were used to psychic pokemon and neither were shocked by the sudden intrusion. _“You took off the aura inhibitors due to your normal act first and think never way of doing things and turned Petalburg Forest into a battle zone.”_ Mewtwo appeared in the far corner of the hospital room. The white and purple pokemon leveled a glare at its trainer…trainer used loosely. _“Imagine my surprise when Lucario called out for my assistance. You really are a foolish trainer and it is a wonder I keep you around at all.”_

The dark haired laughed nervously and attempted to appeal to Mewtwo’s sensibility. “Well…I am sure I did it for a good reason and it was probably the only way to stop…whatever was happening.”

Mewtwo felt a tic mark appear above his eyebrow. Ash’s speech had not moved him…if anything it had irked him further. _“Only way? You have a legendary psychic on command and instead you decide to foolishly wander off on a killing spree!”_

Gulping a little Ash managed to laugh a little. “Oh yeah…I kinda forgot.”

At Ash’s statement both Mewtwo and Steven just stared at him in utter disbelief. Steven had not wanted to interrupt the two in their little verbal fight but he felt he should intercede before Mewtwo decided to give his trainer a reminder of his existence.

“Ahem…regardless of Mr. Ketchum’s inability to plan ahead and use his resources efficiently…” Steven noticed that Mewtwo shot Ash a victorious smirk at Steven’s words. “I would like to thank you for saving my sister. I know you were mainly there to save May but all the same without your interference my sister informed me they probably would not have made it till I arrived.”

“Oh…umm your welcome!” Ash laughed as he was unsure what else to say. Then a thought occurred to him. He in turn found the blob of white and purple that was his pokemon, his eyes were still adjusting to the harsh lights after all. “Wait a second! You are psychic how did you not know I was in trouble!”

Mewtwo just stared at its trainer for a moment before responded even through the psychic link it sounded condescended like he was talking to a small child. _“I can’t predict your special kind of stupidity Ash Ketchum. And despite your apparent belief that you are the be all and end all I do have other missions I need to accomplish. It is not like you don’t have a team of pokemon near legendary strength to call on…if you would actually remember that of course. Next time perhaps I will just ignore Lucario’s request for help. See how you like being forgotten.”_

Steven shot an amused glance towards Mewtwo. “For such a legendary psychic you sure can be childish.”

Mewtwo simply snorted in derision. _“Hazards of being in the care of this fool.”_ The psychic pokemon waved his hand towards Ash.

Steven decided to turn his attention back to Ash. “I would be interested to know what kind of Aura power that was that you displayed in the forest. I don’t think I ever saw any Aura Guardian that displayed that kind of raw power. “

“To be honest I don’t know much about it either.” Ash laughed a little himself. He was woefully ignorant about his own powers sadly.

“Hmm I guess I should have figured since you don’t remember much about it.”

Ash shrugged a little bit in response. “Yeah, this is the second time I used it so can’t say I am an expert last time…” He trailed off at just the thought.

“Cinnabar Island.” Steven filled in for Ash before continuing. A slight smirk crossing his face at Ash’s surprised look. “You know all of the Champions of the respective regions talk to each other. Even Red despite his anti-social nature comes to the meetings.”

“Oh…huh….guess that makes sense.” Ash laughed a little this time without even a wince. Luckily he was used to dealing with pain. “Hey Steven…umm what happened after I passed out for lack of a better term?”

 _“More like when I subdued you and cut off your access to the Aura of yours sending your body into shock and overload?”_ Mewtwo questioned sarcastically.

“Er….yeah or that.”

“Well you pretty much wiped out everyone on the upper level. I cleaned up your mess…mostly with the help of Mewtwo but a few escaped unfortunately.” Steven replied a solemn look coming over his features for a moment. “Without you and Mewtwo I don’t know if I would have even found the base let alone in time to save Sarah.”

A sudden thought crossed Steven’s mind and he quickly checked his watch before looking over to Ash. “You up for a walk and getting out of here?”

“Of course!” Ash exclaimed in excitement. Anything to get out of here honestly was a plus in Ash’s mind. “How do we get out though? Won’t the nurses notice?”

The steel haired champion shot the younger man a grin. “I’m not the Hoenn Champion for nothing. Besides we’ll have to hurry if we want to make it for May’s contest. If I am correct May should be getting ready for the final round!”

 Ash’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and he was quickly trying to get himself out of bed despite the injuries some of which were still not near fully healed. His whole chest was a patchwork of gauze wraps and bandages. His legs and arms were mostly free of gauze at this point as most of those smaller injuries had healed. He was just in the middle of getting himself dressed fully when he realized what May had seen. ‘Will she even want to travel with me any more if she saw what I think she saw…’ Ash felt tightness in his chest that he forced himself to push away.

A more melancholy mood overtook the young Ranger’s thought process. ‘I can’t blame her though. She practically walked into a blood bath she must have seen something when Steven saved them.’ He let out a resigned sigh as he started following Steven out the door resigning himself to part ways with May after her contest. It wouldn’t be fair to drop the bomb on her right before her final match.

“Oh Mewtwo you coming?” Ash stopped suddenly when he remembered his psychic pokemon who was still in the hospital room.

Mewtwo regarded his trainer for a moment before a smirk crossed his face. _“As much as I would love watching you continue to make a fool out of yourself, I have other things to do. Your little mishap threw me off schedule and I have to get going now that you appear to be fine.”_ With a final superior smirk the psychic pokemon teleported out of the room leaving without a trace.

“Hn…nice to see you again as Mewtwo…glad to see you are still a sadistic smug dick.” Ash whispered before he left the room to catch up to Steven.

 

Rustboro City –Contest Center

 

“Alright guys we are going to win this!” May was currently in the ready room she was assigned giving a last minute pep talk to her pokemon…and Pikachu. She decided to “borrow” the little electric rodent since Ash was currently recovering and she required an electric type for what she had in mind.

Her pokemon responded with various calls of their names supporting their trainer while Pikachu looked somewhat miffed that he had been roped into this whole mess but there was little he could do. Pikachu looked longingly at the bottle of hot sauce infused ketchup that the evil temptress had promised him if he helped her out.

The brunette trainer grinned a little when she caught the electric type staring at the ketchup her instincts had been right.

A moment later the announcer came over the loud speaker. “For the appeal portion of the Rustboro City contest finals, second up! The wondrous May Maple of Petalburg City who has captured the hearts of the Judges early on! Her challenger Harley dazzled the crowd with his Cacturne and Ariados! Can she keep up her sweet heart image and capture the finals?”

“Crap!” May did not realize how much time had slipped by. In a flash she had recalled all her pokemon except for Glaceon and of course Pikachu since she did not even have his pokeball. She was out the door and onto the stage in the next moment.

Taking a moment to smile and wave at the crowd she managed to spot Brock, Max, and Sarah in the crowd. She of course was hoping to see Ash but she doubted he would make it. ‘I hope he wakes up soon.’ Her thoughts were pushed aside quickly to tackle the issue at hand. ‘Now to win this contest with style!’

“Alright Glaceon! Pikachu! Front and center!” The two pokemon quickly took their places per May’s practice for the final round over the last few days. Pikachu took the center of the ring while Glaceon took up position in front of her trainer.

The crowd awaited in anticipation for her what she had up her sleeve for the final appeal. “Glaceon start this off with ice shard! Into the sky above Pikachu!”

Glaceon let loose hundreds of ice shards into the air sending the shower of ice high above Pikachu’s head.

“A beautiful display of ice shard!”

“Not done quite yet.” May whispered to herself before shouting out to her pokemon and her borrowed pokemon. “Pikachu! Let loose a continuous chain lightning at Glaceon! Glaceon iron tail!”

The little electric pokemon sent forth a continuous stream of lightning right towards Glaceon. At the last moment the ice pokemon used its iron tail attack to redirect the lightning attack into the ice shards that were now falling. Glaceon skillfully directed the lightning to bounce off the ice shards creating an aura light show.

“Alright Pikachu! Use counter shield to vaporize the remaining ice shards!”

Pikachu cut off his chain lightning and let loose a thunder bolt around his body. The thunder bolts danced into the air causing the remaining ice shards to explode into sparkling water.

May held her breathe for a moment before the Judge’s scores for her appeal were finally decided. With a sigh of relief she saw the scores of 9.0, 8.6, and 9.4 come up from the Judges. The applause from the crowd came after.

“A wonderful display by the talented May Maple! Now taking the stage Harley!”

The oddly dressed man that appeared to be a cross between a human and a Cacturne took the stage in the opposite box from May. A superior smirk crossed the man’s face as he observed his competition. He finally decided to address her across the stage “I do despise having to crush the dreams of little girls but I will do what I must to win.”

Pikachu was returned to May’s side and Glaceon to her pokeball in preparation for the final battle. She glared at her competition a tic mark forming over her one eyebrow. “Just be prepared to lose, I am going to steam roll you!”

“Ohhhh the little girls has claws. Meee Ow!” Harley made a cat paw motion with his right hand while giving the younger girl the stink eye.

May for her part was getting mad…like ready to go over and smash the guys face in mad. “At least I don’t look like a garden weed!” May shot back at the purple haired man…well something.

For his part Harley did not take the comment well. He wiped out a notebook and quickly scrawled his opponents name into his black book. “You just made the list! Bitch.” He whispered the last part since he did not want to get disqualified for inappropriate language.

“Oooh I am soooo scared.” May taunted back while giving the man the stink eye which apparently was the wrong move the older man looked ready to kill before suddenly a sadistic smile crossed his face. This gave May pause.

This also gave enough pause that the poor ref for the match could start the match before the two could restart their verbal battle. “Trainers! If you are ready. This will be a one on one battle following Rustboro City rules this will be a battle until one pokemon is unable to battle. Unlike normal contest battle, appeals will not harm your pokemon’s ability to fight!” (Can you tell I hate contests and can’t write them for shit.)

“Alright! Let’s go! ….uh?” May was about to throw out her Blaziken when Pikachu pinched her leg. The yellow rodent had a bad feeling about this Harley guy and he rather give May some much needed fire power in there. “Well…alright Pikachu if you are sure…”

May was uncertain about her choice especially since she had never fought with Pikachu before now. She knew he was pretty powerful to be Ash’s pokemon though and from helping to save her back in Oldale.

Pikachu shot May a confident smile before stepping out onto the contest floor.

“A Pikachu hmmm? Well I know how to counter a rat!” The older man stated viciously before releasing his own pokemon onto the field. “Cacturne! Go! Crush that annoying rodent for me wouldn’t you doll.”

The grass/dark pokemon appeared on the field with an evil grin on its face. The scarecrow pokemon used to scaring its opponents into submission was surprised to see an unfazed Pikachu sitting on his back legs just staring him down. The Cacturne had a feeling it would not be a normal day that was for sure.

“Being the superior trainer I will start this off! Sandstorm Cacturne!” The grass pokemon quickly spun its body kicking up the sand storm which activated Cacturne’s sand veil ability and increased his speed.

“Grr…Pikachu! Double team then try and hit him with thunder wave!” May ordered.

Dozens of Pikachu’s appeared around the battlefield before they all fired off a thunder wave pulse in an attempt to paralyze and slow down the enemy.

“Underground Cacturne with dig!” The grass/dark pokemon disappeared from view and with the sand storm still in effect he had effectively disappeared from view.

“Pikachu!..” May was unsure what to do as she had little experience with using an electric type and normally did not have a counter for the ground weakness. She would have to finish this quickly. Luckily she had discovered that Pikachu had quite the repertoire of moves if she could get a good hit in. “Thunder struck!”

May mostly called the attack out in desperation and due to the fact she had seen Ash use it before. Hopefully it worked for her.

Not a moment later Cacturne burst from the ground and managed to land a blow on the correct Pikachu with pieces of rock, ground, and its own fist.

Pikachu went flying into the air from the blow but was enough of a veteran to recover mid-flight and let loose a devastating thunder struck attack which used the column of pure lightning to paralyze its foe.

Cacturne flew back towards Harley’s side of the arena charred and smoking. Little bolts of electricity danced across the pokemon as well indicating it was semi paralyzed from the attack despite not being weak to electricity.

“You little ungrateful rugrat! You are playing with the big boys now!” Harley growled in frustration. “Bullet seed!” The purple haired man cried out to his Cacturne.

Luckily Cacturne was not going down from a single thunder attack. It quickly spit out seeds and peppered the small pokemon’s double team images and Pikachu with the hardened seeds.

Pikachu cried out in pain from the attack before glaring back at the grinning Cactus like pokemon.

May on the other hand was getting worried…she had to end this and end it soon. “Pikachu extreme speed!” The electric rodent started to charge the grass dark pokemon before he suddenly turned into a blinding ball of light.

“Catch it with brick break and send it flying!” Thanks to the sand storm upping Cacturne’s speed the cactus pokemon managed to catch Pikachu with its elbow before countering the small rodent’s forward momentum and sending it flying backwards with a devastating flurry of punches.

“And that…is all she wrote…better luck next time girly!” Harley grinned which was mirrored by the confident grin of Cacturne turned to frowns when Pikachu got up from the cloud of dust looking none worse for the wear.

May on her end held in a sigh of relief she really thought Pikachu was done for. She placed a confident smile on her face though to piss off Harley if nothing else. “Not so fast! Pikachu volt beam!” The look of confusion on Harley’s face was priceless. The man had no idea what was occurring.

Pikachu gathered electricity as it charged the Cacturne. While charging is electricity started to strobe around his upturned tail. The signal beam attack quickly flashed faster and faster before striking Cacturne with the super effective attack…not a moment later Pikachu’s volt tackle blasted Cacturne into the other side of the stadium.

The ref awaited for the dust to clear…and not a moment later Cacturne was revealed…with swirls in his eyes. “Knock out! Winner of the match and contest winner of the Rustboro City contest! May Maple!”

May shot a smile over to the glowering trainer who was currently trying to kill said young trainer that had just beaten him soundly with his glare. “What was that you said earlier? Oh yeah that’s right! Welcome to the big leagues!”

The brunette trainer held up her trophy a moment later before she suddenly saw her friends rushing towards her to congratulate her. With them was the last person she thought she would see so soon…Ash Ketchum bandaged up and grinning like a fool. Their eyes met and May couldn’t help the smile that leapt onto her face. For some reason the fact that he saw her win caused butterflies in her stomach. Without another thought May raced towards her friends and in a move that surprised both of them, threw her arms around Ash before soundly kissing him on the lips.

 

 

A/N: I was going to add in some more and perhaps create more of a cliff hanger but I figured between Ash and May kissing along with Ghul’s meeting with Koga and Ketchum next chapter that should be suspense enough. Also I am going off on a mini trip tomorrow so I will only have my tablet till Sunday. I wanted to get this chapter out prior to leaving on my trip. I will probably start posting every other week unless the spirit moves me. I may edit this up a little bit on Sunday if I have time…probably should get a Beta but I don’t play well with others. Once again my lies are lies within lies about getting the group anywhere. Between May and Ash next chapter dealing with the kiss and having to get a gym battle in somewhere and tackling some more of Ash’s past along with Team Rocket and the Aura Guardians I will be lucky to get them out of Rustboro in two or three chapters. Oi anyway time to crash gotta 4 hour drive tomorrow morning blerg.

 

 


	9. Rustboro City - Lightningrod

A/N: So sorry about the long time no update. Unfortunately Spring/Summer is my busy time at work so I don’t have much time to write. I am also job hunting so a lot of my time is subdivided into nothingness. Anyway I managed to get this banged out and I can’t promise when the next chapter will be out. Probably late…late like super late June or July but you can thank Ultimate Darkness X for semi shaming me into making time to get this updated.

Chapter 9 – Rustboro City - Lightningrod

Unknown – Kiri Kir Mountain Range

Ghul practically danced down the cavern’s main entry way. She passed by Rocket patrols without a care in the world as she hummed to herself. Another mission accomplished and finally away from those annoying Aura Guardians that she was forced to interact with for the past week. She could only hope that the information that she received at their last meeting was worth Master Ketchum’s time.

“Master Ketchuuuuuummm! Master Kooooogggggaaaa! I’m back!” The once droll Ghul popped into the command room with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. She surveyed the control room only to find no one home. Well no one of interest at least. A few of the grunts operating the computer systems but no one of worth at least as far as she was concerned.

 The control room in general was a crude set up, various wiring hanging from the stone above and running down the walls. Most of the floor was just smoothed down stone and a few metal grates that covered heavy duty power chords. There were a few main monitors hung against the South Wall that mostly scanned through maps of the Hoenn region. There were also a few utilitarian desks with chairs and some modern computers. The room in general had an eerie feel due to the low lighting. Most of the lighting came from overhead excavation lamps. “How disappointing…” She sighed a little before she heard a cough coming from the corner where the prisoner was held. Unfortunately their base of operations did not have the luxury of having much more than the main room, a few storage rooms, and some staff rooms used for sleeping. Thus it was a necessity they keep their unplanned guest in the operations room where there was always staff to watch the prisoner.

“Oh…I did not realize you were still alive. I would have thought Master Ketchum would have killed you a while ago…” Ghul sauntered over to the woman who was chained to the wall. The bindings kept the woman from moving more than an inch in any direction. “Hmmmmm….Not bad not bad at all I must say I am getting great at playing you Ghul.” Ghul 1 surveyed Ghul 2 who was currently chained against the wall. Ghul 2 looked a little worse for the wear, her clothing was in tatters and much of her skin was covered in abrasions from abuse. “Did you know I got in a fight with Aurion and he never even doubted I was who I said I was? So much for your legendary prowess.”

Ghul 2 glared at her twin before spitting into Ghul 1’s face. “Fucking little bitch.” Ghul 2 sneered at the bitch that would dare impersonate her. How the little whore with her closet of tricks had fooled the Aura Guardians was beyond her but that was neither here nor there. Ghul 2 was more concerned about making it out of her current situation alive. “The minute I get free I will kill you first!”

Ghul 1 wiped the spit from her face with one of her gloved hands. She looked down at the glove with a look of disgust before bringing her hand up in a back handed slap across Ghul 2’s face. “That was really rude! Maybe I need to teach you a personal lesson on how lady should act.” Ghul 1 felt a satisfied crunch under her fist after a quick jab broke Ghul 2’s nose.

“Gaah!” Ghul 2 wailed as her head jerked back from the unexpected hit. She coughed out blood but it did nothing to stop the flow. The coppery taste slid down her throat causing her to gag from the taste. She glared at the little troll and struggled against her bindings trying to get at the little sadistic bitch that was taking great pleasure from there one on one torture session.

“Now! Now! None of that!” Ghul 1’s face twisted into a look of pure loathing as she started to lay into Ghul 2 with a hard punch into the bound woman’s mid-section. A moment later she landed a brutal elbow into Ghul 2’s face a second time further compacting the already broken nose. Blood, saliva, and bits of cartilage flew through the air and a moment later Ghul 2’s body sagged against the chains. Blood was flowing freely down the captive Aura Guardian’s face and now her face looked like it had gone through a meat grinder. The woman coughed violently seeing double of her double from the unnecessarily rough hits that had been doled out.

Ghul 1 shot a superior grin towards the bound girl. “You have to keep quiet or else the Operations Staff will not be able to concentrate.” She was about to lay into Ghul 2 further before a sharp voice stopped her from dishing out further punishment.

“Dulpica! Stop this at once!” A rather large figure stood at the doorway into the main operations room. The man was dressed in a rather expensive looking dark grey business suit, his bright aqua tie on the black dress shirt was very eye catching. The man held many facial features similar to a certain Elite Ranger Ash Ketchum. His jet black hair was a carefully constructed mess and his golden brown eyes that radiated power as his gaze swept across Duplica and Ghul.

“Master Ketchum Sir!” The few Rocket operatives that were in the operations room managed a sloppy salute to the commanding officer on deck. The well-dressed man simply waved the men off with a smile as he walked further into the operations room.

“Master Ketchum!” Duplica shrieked in delight as she threw herself against the older man and pressed her body against the muscular frame of Master Ketchum before looking up at him. “I am so happy to be back! Can I kill her, can I? Pleasssseeee?” Duplica made motions towards Ghul.

Master Ketchum chuckled a little before running his hand through Duplica’s hair in a soothing motion. “Now now…you know I can’t promise that…but I do think Ghul’s use is coming to an end.” He shot an apologetic smile towards the bound woman. “I am sorry but you will have to die soon my dear. I wish I did not have to involve you like this but I did need to know what the Aura Guardian’s plans were for Ash.”

Ghul glared at the two, well as much as she could, she still could not quite see straight. Watching herself rub against the older man like a whore was not improving her mood. “Somehow I doubt that.” She spit out more blood after speaking. Luckily the flow was stemming itself. She once again attempted to use her Aura powers but once again found her powers blocked by the bindings that this Ketchum had placed on her.

Master Ketchum chuckled a little. “Come now you must understand my position. You must have known you were not the only players in the game interested in Ash.” With a charming smile he held up his free hand and momentarily let his red aura flash up around his hand. “I have certain plans for that Aura user and they are quite long term…yes quite long term. I can’t have your people mucking up my end game now can I?” The roguish man mused mostly to himself over the matter at hand.

He ignored the beaten Aura Guardian for the moment and turned his attention back to Duplica. “Now my darling Duplica please report on the latest meeting from the Guardians.”

“Yes Sir!” Duplica detached herself from Master Ketchum and looked on at her master with an adoring smile on her face. There really was no one better than Master Ketchum. Prior to meeting him, she had been shiftless, drifting from town to town with no goals. No one had recognized her special skills before meeting Master Ketchum in Silver Town. This man before her had given her purpose and power. She owed him so much she would do anything for him.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts she quickly summarized the important parts of the Guardian meeting. “They believe Ash may be a Red Aura user like you. Their forces have sent scouts out to find Ash Ketchum but more worrisome they are going to contact the other regions with this information.”

Master Ketchum mulled over the information provided to him for a moment. A move against the Aura Guardians to keep them from alerting the other regions could be blocked but not without showing their hand. He took a seat deep in thought over this most vexing problem. His fingers drumming against the tabletop. He barely noticed Duplica crawling into his lap and nuzzling against his chest.

Absently he rubbed the young girls head letting her relax against him. “Koga…Good Afternoon. I trust that you have some information that I would find useful.” Master Ketchum closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair completely unconcerned that he was talking to what appeared to be no one.

“Master Ketchum your powers of perception are truly amazing. I do wonder how you are able to detect me so easily.” The elder ninja appeared from thin air. Dressed in his traditional ninja fatigues and held a severe no nonsense expression on his face. The man was currently the senior officer in charge of the remainder of Team Rocket.

“Well if I told you, you would only go about finding a way to conceal yourself from me. I truly cannot have that if I am to stay alive after I have outlived your usefulness.” The well-dressed man mused more to himself than Koga. “I hope you did alert anyone to your continued existence during your excursion.”  

“I unlike Giovanni understand the importance of a shadow war.” Koga glanced over at the prisoner who had been listening to their conversation with interest. “It is not wise to allow an enemy to know your objectives defeated or not.”

The younger man sighed a bit…despite all the help he received from Koga in return for helping the elder ninja reunify Team Rocket he sometimes could not stand the man’s constant paranoia. Then again he had lost much of his original clan to Red in the original Rocket War. “You worry too much Koga. Even if she escapes she knows nothing of my true objectives.”

Master Ketchum waved off the concerns of the master of the shadows before turning his attention to Duplica who had remained silent up until this point. “Duplica please remove yourself from my body. I do not believe Master Koga will continue until I remove Ms. Ghul.”

A moment later Ketchum was up after Duplica had removed herself per his request and shot a pointed look at Koga. “I had been planning on doing this at a later date. I do hope your information is worthwhile.”

Master Ketchum looked Ghul over for a moment, a look of regret floating across his face as he let his aura cover his right hand. “I do apologize my dear.”

“What are you doing?” Ghul managed to bring her head up to look at the man when she heard him speaking to her. She looked at him for a moment before looking at his glowing hand. Her eyes widened when she realized what he was going to do. “No no! I won’t say anything I swear! I Swear!”

The Red Aura user cut off her screams by pressing his hand which was glowing with aura over her mouth. He pressed his power across her. For a moment her blue aura managed to raise up in an attempt to fight off the older man’s power. He ruthlessly squashed her attempt at fighting back. His eyes never leaving hers until he watched the spark of consciousness leave her. “You may proceed Koga.”

The ninja master to his credit did not say a word. He merely watched until he saw the woman’s head drop again and no longer appeared to be moving. “We have intercepted word that the Pike Queen has been sent from Kanto to assist Ash Ketchum in his mission. Furthermore I have heard word that there are certain tensions in Kanto we may be able to take advantage of in the future.”

“Is that so?” Master Ketchum looked down at his handiwork with a sigh. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. A thought struck him and he turned to Koga imploringly “The Pike Queen has she arrived yet?”

“No she will arrive in Rustboro City within the next week.” Koga stated.

“Excellent, if she were to disappear…our dear Duplica could become the Pike Queen. We need someone to keep up to date with his movements.” He turned away from Ghul’s unmoving body and turned to Duplica. “Duplica be a dear and impersonate the Pike Queen…please go ahead and join up with Ash Ketchum and his companions in Rustboro City.”

“A sensible plan…I shall dispatch my clan immediately.” Koga pounded his fist across his chest before disappearing. He would need to act quickly if the Pike Queen was to disappear before arriving in Hoenn.

“I won’t let you down Master!” Duplica shot a winning smile before running out of the operations room giggling the entire way down the hall. She had so much to do and so little time. She would have to review any public archive tapes of Lucy that she could find. Part of the disguise was selling personality after all.

“Oh my…that girl really is not stable.” Ketchum shook his head a little before turning his attention back to Ghul. “Now you dear…I have such grand plans for you my little puppet.” 

 

Rustboro City – Contest Center

It was that awkward moment where everyone was just staring. Ash and May felt everyone else’s eyes ping ponging back and forth between them. Even Steven was watching on with amused interest. Brock had a silly grin on his face and Max was just pointing with a gaping mouth. Finally Sarah looked on in much the same fashion as her brother.

‘Holyyyy…shit…did that just happen.’ May had opened her eyes and was staring directly into Ash’s eyes who looked equally surprised. ‘I can’t believe I did that shit, shit, shit, shit!’ May’s internal monologue was interrupted by the thought when all of a sudden the announcer took advantage of the great P.R. moment.

“And look at that Ladies and Gentlemen! A perfect topper to an impeccable performance by May Maple! It is so rare that we see such a scene on the contest field!” The announcer was quickly directing the cameramen to get a close up of the two as he hurried down to the contest field.

A moment later the spiffy announcer appeared behind the two, a giant a smile coming across his face as he wrapped his arms around the two. “Now Miss. Maple who is this young beau that has captured your heart.” He shot a grin at Ash. “Or is it she who has captured yours young man?”

“Come on don’t be shy!” The announcer laughed a little before poking the two when he received no response. The two were completely rooted to the spot…blushing red.

Finally May seemed to come around…slightly or at least enough to speak. “Oh…ummm well this is Ash...” Her voice trailed off as she looked at Ash in uncertainty.

“Er…hi…” Ash managed to stutter out as he looked between May and the Announcer.

The announcer laughed before guiding the two towards the award ceremony. He could sense a ratings boost when he saw one. These two teens would work out wonderfully for this episode. If he got this completed fast enough he could create a back story and voice over some of his previous commentary before the contest video was released on video. “Now let’s get over to that award ceremony.” Star crossed lovers…that was always a seller. The announcer smiled as he guided them up the stairs and onto the award platform.

It took both May and Ash several minutes and a get through a few awkward questions from the Announcer before they finally managed to slip away and meet up outside. The rest of the group was conspicuously absent…though perhaps not so conspicuous come to think of it. Ash and May had spotted the group a little ways off.

Brock was currently reciting poetry to many of the college aged females leaving the contest hall. Max had latched onto his back and was attempting to get Brock into a full nelson in an attempt to shut him the hell up. Unfortunately it was not going well and the Silver siblings were not stepping in to help the situation. “Come on Brock! No one wants to hear your stupid poetry! I am pretty sure the police are coming on reports of a creep harassing people!” Max yelled out

“Oh Jenny my love! You have come for me!” Brock had turned his attention to the arriving officers and had singled out officer Jenny.

“Sir I am going to require you to cease and desist. IF you do not we will have to remove you.” Officer Jenny was currently glaring at the giant man-child.

“Oh Jenny! Even were you to put physical bars between us, they will never stop my love from seeping through the gaps!” Brock called out as Jenny hauled him off towards the police cruiser.

“Heh…good old Brock…he never changes.” Ash shook his head a little before turning his attention to May who had a look of mirth about her face after witnessing the scene.

“He is a character…” May trailed off as she turned her attention to Ash. “So…Ash…ummm about earlier…”

“Oh yeah, earlier…” Ash blushed a little at May’s mention of their earlier kiss before looking away. He really did not know what to think. After Leaf had been killed he had pretty much shut down emotionally and this was not helping matters. Still he could not deny that he was starting to feel a certain away about the brunette in front of him.  Then there were all of the close calls were May had almost been kidnapped or killed since she ran into him.

“May…Look…” Ash sighed, he was a little dejected that he had to let her down but there was no way he could in good conscious let her continue traveling with him. In less than three weeks’ time he had put her in danger multiple times. “I…well, I don’t think this is going to work.”

The silence was palpable and for a moment Ash thought she was going to listen to reason. A nervous smile was coming across his face as the silence continued. It was then that he noticed May’s fists clenching and unclenching. Her head was down and her bangs hide her expression but he could see that her jaw was clenched.

“Why?” May then lifted her head up and stared directly into Ash’s eyes. She could feel the tears pricking the sides of her eyes and starting to run down her face. She somehow knew that there was no way that he returned her feeling but she needed to know. “Why Ash Ketchum?!”

The teary eyed brunette watched him closely for a reaction but his face betrayed nothing. She wanted him to say something. Anything would do but the silence was not helping. Of course May being May could not hold her tongue for long and found herself lashing out with verbal diarrhea.  

“Am I that unattractive to you?” May gestured to herself and now she felt the fool because she knew she looked a mess and was starting to look like the crazy woman during a break up. She could not bring herself to care. “What is it!? Why the fuck is this not going to work out!? I thought there was something here!”

The dark haired trainer just watched May’s outburst and carefully kept his poker face on. He could not allow himself to feel anything. If he did May would jump on it and tear his carefully constructed arguments apart. He had been thinking about this since he had awoken. He decided to speak when he saw an opening in May’s diatribe.

“May I find you very attractive. I do I promise.” He offered a small smile and lowered his voice in an attempt to keep himself calm. The moment he lost his calm he knew he would revert to his normal arguments which were always emotionally driven. “I would love nothing more than to continue traveling with you, really I would, but I have come to realize that it is too dangerous for you to continue travelling with me. So for your safety we will have to part here.”

Ash would have only a split second and May’s next words to realize that, that was a bad argument to make with May.

“Oh is that it then?” May felt her anger rising. ‘How dare he! How dare he try and decide what is best for me!’ She raged internally for a moment and her fist was twitching. Her tears had stopped and her face had warped into a look of pure unadulterated rage. “So the great Ash Ketchum has “decided” what is best and his will be done! IS that IT!?”

Ash had a moment really to understand the situation he was in when he realized that they had gained an audience and heard Max in the back ground. “Oh…poor Ash…”

The dark haired Ranger really did not have time to think on those words because the next second he realized he was on the ground and blinked in confusion. ‘How the hell….?” He mused for a moment before realizing May was now standing above him shaking her fist and glaring down at him.

May glared down at Ash her tears once again resuming. “You utter fucking asshole! I can’t believe what a chauvinistic jack ass you are!  I thought you were different Ash Ketchum but I see you are not a man, you are just a little fucking boy that has not gotten over your little girlfriend that left you!”

Ash’s face contorted into a look of rage before going completely stone faced. “You don’t know what you are talking about May…I think it is time for you to leave. Go back to Petalburg City May…just go.” Ash slowly pulled himself up and pushed past May.

May’s eyes widened as she realized what she had just said. She did not really know the circumstances not completely. She just knew a little from what she had heard Brock mention in passing to Steven while Ash was out. She desperately wanted to take it back but somehow she knew it was too late. Still she tried. “Ash…Ash wait! I am sorry!” Damn her inability to keep her mouth shut. She just wanted Ash to feel as bad as she did. ‘Good fucking job May mission accomplished yet another boy you have lost!’

Ash did not reply instead he simply kept walking and headed towards the local jail. He barely noticed that Pikachu had caught up to him at some point and was bounding alongside to keep up with his angered trainer. “Chuuuuuuuu…” Pikachu called out tentatively.

“Don’t worry about it Pikachu. It is for the best anyway…we need to hit up the Rustobo Jail to retrieve Brock and then swing by Rustboro gym to see if the leader knows anything before we set out.” Ash ignored everything else going on around him as he marched towards the jail intent on getting Brock out of jail.

 

Rustboro City – Jail

“Brock…your bail has been posted.” Officer Jenny was glaring at the squinty eyed man as she reluctantly opened up the cell.

Luckily Brock had the decency and intelligence to keep him mouth closed for once. This Officer Jenny had taken everything to the next level. He was used to a slap on the wrist and a ‘Oh you’ but never had he been locked away. Perhaps…perhaps women did not like being verbally harassed and he should rethink his ways of wooing women.

‘Nah! Rustboro City must be an outlier in the field of love…oh the tragedy to not understand the feelings of love.’ Brock nodded to himself as he confirmed his thoughts as being correct. There could be no way that his advances were unwanted! Just look at his track record…ummm well maybe we shouldn’t look at that come to think of it.

He dutifully followed Officer Jenny out of the holding cell and into the main lobby. The moment his eyes caught Ash’s eyes he knew something was wrong. He had not seen that look since the battle of Cinnabar. Something had happened in his absence and it could not have been good. Especially considering the fact that the Maple and Silver siblings were nowhere to be seen and Pikachu appeared to be rather sad. “Hey Ash…ummm where is everyone?”

“They left…look we need to get to going to Rustboro gym.” Without further comment Ash turned around and walked out of the building expecting Brock to follow.

The tanned man quickly caught up with his slightly smaller friend. He placed a smile on his face in an attempt to lighten the mood. He could feel the tension radiating off of Ash. “So hey…why did everyone leave?”

“They decided things were getting too dangerous. It is better this way.” Ash continued his march towards the Rustboro Gym not looking at anything or anyone.

“Well yes…it has been dangerous but come on an Elite Ranger and Ex-Gym Leader we can handle it.”

“May almost died twice on my watch. She is better off alone not being a target. Max is too young and the Silver siblings will of course be returning to their duties here.” Ash stated in a tone that would bridge no argument.

“Alright…I mean I guess that makes sense. Still would have been nice to have May along eh? For company and maybe something more?” Brock shot a grin towards his stalwart companion.

Ash glared at Brock’s attempted joke before speaking. “She knew about Leaf…how the fuck did she know about Leaf, Brock?”

“Look…I may have mentioned something in passing at some point. I don’t remember…”

The two fell into awkward silence as they came to the front of the Rustboro gym.

 

Rustboro City – Pokemon Center

“I know you are not in a good mood but you did not have to make the poor girl cry…or trample her like she was nothing. In fact using Arcanine to practically melt her rock pokemon was a little past harsh.” Brock was following Ash and attempting to get some kind of response from the younger Ranger.

“She had to learn Brock…you can’t count on type advantages.” Ash dismissed Brock with a glare making it known he his advance was no longer wanted or needed. He laid his pokeballs down on one of the trays for trainers and handed it to the nurse.

“Yeah…I mean I know but geez…” Brock muttered a little as he waited for Ash to finish with Nurse Joy. He was so distraught over Ash’s mood that he did not even try to hit on Nurse Joy.

Without knowing it, Brock’s actions confused Nurse Joy. A little known fact was that there was an actually a club devoted to Nurse Joy. Joy Lovers and they comprised of men that were obsessed with the Nurse’s. To keep their sister’s in arms from falling prey to these devious and obsessive men. The Nurse Joy’s created a registry of these stalkers and they kept a database up and running on one of the computers at all times. The database would run footage off of the camera facing the front door against the registry and if someone came up it would alert the Nurse and provide all the information. Even though Brock was not a member of this club he was considered public enemy number 1 amongst the Nurse Joy community.

“How strange…everything matches…” She muttered to herself before she took the pokemon from Ash and realized she had a message for the young man in front of her. Luckily once the pokemon touched the tray their registry information pulled up the trainer they belonged to. This cut down on theft as if multiple trainers showed up from pokeballs provided from one trainer an Officer would immediately be called to question the trainer.

“Mr. Ketchum…” Nurse Joy trailed off momentarily when she caught the young man’s eyes. He appeared to not be in a very good mood. “Sorry…but you have a message and a request to call a Gary Oak in Pallet Town.”

“Thanks Nurse Joy. I will be back to pick up my pokemon.” Ash made his way over to the video phone bank and selected one of the private video phones. He was well aware Brock was following him not that he cared. If Gary had called it was probably something that Brock needed anyway.

He dialed up the number for Oak’s laboratory and watched the line as it connected. A small smirk probably the first since his fight with May came up when the back of Gary’s head came up in the video screen. “Wrong camera Gary.” He stated in a bored tone.

“Mother fucker…every fucking time.” Gary muttered more to himself than to the two men on the other line. Finally after another minute of cursing Gary managed to get the camera oriented so his face was showing on their screen. His signature smirk ever present as he addressed the two in his normal condescending tone. “Well then about time you two lollygaggers got to Rustoboro City. I was starting to worry you had gotten yourself killed.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Ash muttered as he slouched back in the chair and just stared blankly at Gary.

Gary peered into the camera and leaned in a little closer. “Hey Ashy boy…geez who died?”

“Apparently not Leaf according to May.” Ash stated without emotion. His voice mostly just sounding dead.

Gary whistled a little before looking towards Brock. “What happened?”

“Well…ummm I don’t really know…I kinda got locked up by Officer Jenny for disturbing the peace.” Brock sweat dropped a little his smile turning into a little bit of grimace.

“Of course you did.” Gary rolled his eyes and grumbled to himself. “Well…barring the little melodrama where is May, she may as well here this as well since she is traveling with you two.”

“She is no longer traveling with us.”

“No longer traveling with you? Ok Ashy boy what the hell is going on? I have never seen you this down since…well you know.” Gary trailed off at the end but he wanted an answer and he wanted one now.

Ash looked away from the camera for a moment before deciding to just explain what had occurred. “Look May kissed me, I decided it would be best that she not travel with us lest she become a target, she flipped out on me, hit me, and then insulted Leaf.” By the end his eyes were blazing in anger and his tone had taken on a hard edge.

“What exactly did you say to her Ash!? Not that either of you are very level headed but she at least must have had a good reason for what she did…well up to the Leaf part. What did you say exactly?” Gary fixed Ash with a hard glare.

At this accusation Ash actually began to fidget a little. Leave it to Gary to get himself involved in Ash’s business. He would just blow him off but once Gary was onto something he was like a dog with a bone and would not let it go. “Well…you see it was for her own good.”

“Go on…this ought to be good.” Gary crossed his arms over his chest and just stared at his rock headed friend.

“Well…heh…ummm I kinda told her that I decided it was no longer safe for her to travel and that we were parting here in Rustboro city.” Ash rubbed the back of his head feeling a little bit like his answer would not be good enough for Gary.

It wasn’t in fact Gary was entering into a full blown rant. “Are you fucking kidding me Ash Ketchum! You decided? No wonder she was pissed. Did you ever think perhaps you should get her opinion on the matter?”

“Let’s just drop it Gary what is done is done. Now can we get to the point so we can head out towards our next gym.” Ash let out an exasperated sigh. He really was not in the mood for a lecture from Gary Oak about his god damn love life again.

“Fine Ash…fine we will drop it for now.” Gary pointed directly at the camera towards Ash. “But this isn’t over Ash and you are going to be stuck in Rustboro for at least another day or two anyway! And Brock I swear to god I will not protect you this time if I see another sexual harassment report come in.”

Gary shot a glare at Brock before pausing a moment for suspense. “Lance has seen fit to send you some assistance in the form of Pike Queen Lucy. She will be arriving in the next day or two in Rustboro City and Scott has sworn vengeance if she comes back damaged physically or emotionally.”

“That is great Gary we can always use the help but umm why did Lance see fit to send us further assistance exactly?” Ash’s head slid to the side as he tried to think of why Lance would think they needed further assistance.

“Who cares why Ash! The beautiful Pike Queen Lucy will be here in the morning. I will have to of course find the nearest flower shop!” Brock’s eyes became starry as his fantasy played out In his head. Lucy would arrive weary from her travels, she would of course be looking for her prince charming, and he would be there with flowers and a poem. “Oh Lucy you are the queen of my heart for my heart has been speared by your pike of love.”

Gary and Ash rolled their eyes in unison. “Really Brock what makes you think a woman would want to hear any of that…ever.” Ash muttered before turning his attention back to Gary.

Gary for his part just smirked. “Well Ashy boy let me explain it nice and simple so you can grasp it with your little acorn brain.” He paused and took pleasure in seeing Ash’s face start to turn red in rage over Gary’s less than veiled insults.  “Steven is the champion of Hoenn and Lance is the acting champion of Kanto and Johto. Seems they had a little chat a few days ago and it came to pass that a certain Ranger saved his sister. Oh and the funny thing was that, that certain Ranger happened to take his gloves off that blocked his aura. So somehow after hearing that this Ranger went completely out of control and only stopped due to the intervention of a certain psychic pokemon, Lance felt that you two needed a responsible party to keep an eye on you two. Of course that someone would have to outrank both of your asses to keep you in line. That of course only left an active gym leader, an ex-gym leader of a higher ranked gym, an elite four member which we cannot spare, or of course an active Frontier Brain. So though you are officially still in charge Ash if you and Brock decide to proceed with any more pea brained ideas she will be there to tell you are idiots...officially.”

“Great…well we better get a room for the night.” Ash sighed as he got up and stretched a little. “Well thanks for the info Gary.”

“Hey Ash! We aren’t finished here we still have to talk about May! Don’t you do it!” Ash simply looked at Gary with a bored gaze before reaching to hit the disconnect button.

“Bye Gary.” Without another thought Ash disconnected the call and glanced over at Brock who was still in his little fantasy land. Groaning a little bit in annoyance he grabbed the back of Brock’s vest. “Come on lover boy best we get some shut eye. We will have to be up early in the morning.”

 

A/N: So next chapter we will see the arrival of Lucy…well one of them anyway. Perhaps a skirmish with the Aura Guardians of Hoenn or Team Aqua/Magma depending on my mood and what I need. We will be getting out of Rustboro and heading towards Dewford Town. I cut out the scene with the gym leader mostly because I did not feel it was necessary and I was not really sure if I could write a decent Roxanne. Also the fight between Ash and May took up more time than I expected. Well as I said at the start the updates will probably be quarterly for a while. Other than that poll is closed, Lucy will be Brock’s love interest. I may throw another poll up there if I need it. Thanks again for the reviews from Egg Emperor, Cyberbeasttitan, Ignisami, and mitzykitty along with the PM from Ultimate Darkness X for shaming me into updating. Drop a review if you wish other than that until next time. 


	10. Rustboro City - Weak Armor

Chapter  10 - Rustboro City Weak Armor

A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates and the late arrival of this chapter. Unfortunately real life comes first and I have been rather busy. My wife and I are relocating to Baltimore, MD so it is a bit of a scramble to find a place to live and a place to work for me. Hopefully I will be settled in by November and able to update on a regularish time frame. My apologizes this chapter will be more introspective and not as much action as I was originally planning.

Oak Ranch – Pallet Town

Gary huffed in annoyance from the dismissal he received from his longtime friend and rival. “Damn jackass is a pain when he gets in one of his moods.” The young professor was debating on making a call to the lovely Miss May but he was stopped by the sound of the perimeter alarm going off.

“Now who is coming over this late at night…” Gary racked his brain for any late night visitors that gramps had scheduled but could not think of any off the top of his head. A moment later he had the outside cameras up and the sight was not a promising one. He watched as a group of League Rangers started to walk up the path towards the main door of the lab. Taking a moment to pan through the other cameras that surrounded the lab he found a most unwelcome confirmation. He found at least a platoon of Rangers just outside the ranch on standby. “Well looks like tonight is about to get interesting…”

It was a good thing that Gary hung around Ash so much or else he may have been in a panic over the whole situation. He hit the comm link and hoped to god that Gramps was still up or else the old man was going to receive one hell of a wakeup call. “Gramps, we have a late night visit from some League Rangers. I am heading up to the front door to greet them. It looks like they have friends waiting outside our lab’s perimeter.”

Not pausing for an answer Gary made his way out of the communications room and made his way towards the door. It was just in time for a moment later there was a loud rapping sound coming from the lab’s main entrance. “Just a moment!” Gary yelled out ahead the agitation clearly coming across in his voice.

“Can I help you with something?” Gary asked in a brusque tone the moment he had opened the main door. He did not even attempt to school his face to hide his feeling on the entire situation. “This is a private residence and a private lab. Unless you have business here please vacate the premises.”

The lead Ranger shook his head in response. For what it was worth the Ranger did not look excited at the prospect of being here either. “You are Gary Oak? Is Professor Oak available as well? It would make this easier for us to talk to your superior.”

“Well sorry to say but Gramps does not appear to be in at the moment.” The younger professor grunted in annoyance at the Professor remark…because apparently only Gramps counted as a professor here at Oak Lab. Not to mention his superior? Seriously these chumps were rank amateurs.

Speaking of the devil the aging professor appeared behind Gary with that damn happy smile on his face. “Gary! Where are your manners? Our guests must be tired from being up and about this late at night. You get them settled into the tea room and I will be right out with refreshments!” The older professor shot a smile towards the league Rangers before clasping a hand down on Gary’s shoulder for a moment.

“Professor Oak this is not necessary we are simply here to provide notice to you.” The lead Ranger was cut off by the eccentric old man.

“Nonsense! Any news is always better over tea and refreshments!” The older man laughed as he patted his grandson’s shoulder once more before disappearing off to the kitchen.

‘What are you planning you crazy old bastard.’ Gary thought as he watched his Grandfather disappear before turning his attention back to the Rangers.

For a moment both parties just stood there awkwardly. The Rangers had expected this to be a simple mission and would be out in a moment. Instead the small team of five Rangers were left staring expectantly at one Gary Oak. Gary Oak of course was left to baby sit their unwelcome house guests that Gramps had just decided should be honored with tea and snacks. “Well since we are apparently running an all-night diner…let me show you to the sitting room.” Gary gestured towards an open door way to his right. “Well gentlemen…let us not delay.”

A moment later the group had been ushered into the sitting room off to the side of the main foyer of the lab. Gary was sitting in one of the high backed chairs and had was sitting hunched forwards with his chin resting upon his clasped hands. The Rangers on the other hand had taken up seating on the opposite side of the room. The lead Ranger and what appeared to be his second in command by Gary’s estimation were sitting on the sofa, their hands resting on their knees and their eyes roving the interior for some type of threat that had not yet presented itself to them. The other three Rangers were standing on either side of the sofa.

Just as the tension was hitting the breaking point in the room Professor Oak appeared in the door way holding a tray that held a vast array of pastries along with tea and an assortment condiments. Professor Oak served the entire room with the practiced ease of a professional host. This of course left Gary staring at his Grandfather. The old man was constantly leaving him in some state of disbelief.

“Now then what can I help you gentlemen with this fine evening?” Oak had his ever present grin on his face as he sat down and took his own pastry and tea.

“Seriously old man…” Gary muttered out of the side of his mouth. If the professor gave any indication of hearing the younger scientist he gave no indication.

The unfortunate vanguard was just as confused as Gary was with Professor Oak’s insistence at tea and pastries. “Professor Oak…my name is Ranger Lee. I have come to serve you with orders from the League.” The man worked a moment before producing a set of official documents from within his vest.

Professor Oak looked over the documents with a hint of amusement on his face until he reached the end of the document. A frown crossed his face as he glanced back at the Rangers with a hint of steel entering his eyes. “Well Ranger Lee. I am quite troubled by this document. According to this document my lab will be taken over by the League and shut down according to the League Champion. I find it hard to believe Red would shut down my lab without a reason.”

Gary of course was no where near as calm about the situation as his grandfather. “Shut down the lab! This is ridiculous we are not even league funded!” The young man growled while slamming his hand down into the chair…hopefully making his point.

Ranger Lee grew a tad uncomfortable facing the Professor’s Oak. It was well known that Professor Oak used to be a league champion himself and Gary Oak was no slouch either when it came to training. “Yes well…the League does subsidize the food and medical care provided to the pokemon that you have in your care. The League feels it to be a better move to keep all pokemon in stasis…Red being gone for so long, well, there has been a change in League leadership.”

“A change in leadership? This is unprecedented…” Professor Oak muttered more to himself than to the actual Rangers in his presence. ‘No…this will not turn out well whatever has occurred in the League it isn’t normal. Hypno…your services may be required.’ The older Professor reached out to one of his most trusted pokemon across their psychic link.

“What the hell is Lance thinking?” Gary growled before directing his anger on the League Rangers. “I don’t care how long Red has been gone! If Lance thinks he can just go around shutting down private research institutions he has another thing coming.”

“With all due respect Professor Oak…er Oak’s.” The Ranger corrected awkwardly. “Lance has been relieved of command. Champion Agatha and her Lieutenant Champion Will have labeled former League Champion Lance and his accomplish Karen as enemies of the state.” The Ranger looked a tad nervous at the enraged looks he was receiving, it was not exactly that he agreed with the two but at the same time he was just the messenger. Orders were unfortunately orders even if he did not agree to them. “This is a preemptive movement to limit potential resources that the rogue League officials may gain access to. There have already been attacks from now traitorous gym leaders fighting with Lance and Karen. Do not worry the League has this issue under control.”

Professor Oak senior actually laughed after the statement from the League official. “The new champion eh…so the old hag has finally made her power play. I see…she seeks to limit the resources that potential threats to her powerbase can gather before the good people of Kanto and Johto realize that a demon has taken control.” Professor Oak stood up quickly surprising everyone in the room even Gary. “Well no deal Ranger! You have a choice here and now! Serve the traitorous hag and know that you have turned your back on your oath or protect the people you swore to protect. Think long and hard on this Rangers for I will know where your hearts lay so deceit will be pointless.”

With that Professor Oak swept his arm towards the hallway where an older Hypno stood. The pokemon may not be quite as fast as he was in his prime but he was still more than powerful enough to put down most pokemon a Ranger could sport.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room. Gary was staring warily at the Rangers in the sitting room. His hand twitched every moment or so towards the pokeballs he always made a habit of carrying on his belt. The League Rangers in the room were making a hasty meeting between each other. The one in charge was obviously arguing with one or two of the younger members regarding their feelings on Professor Oak’s offer.

Professor Oak though for all of his anger was content to rock back and forth on his heels and await an answer from the Rangers.

Finally after a ten minute debate Lee turned back to Professor Oak. “Professor after debate…my team has decided to accept your offer on one condition.”

“Oh…and what may that be?” Professor Oak said lightly as he turned to Hypno and giving his trusted pokemon a discreet nod prior to turning his attention back to the Rangers.

Lee slowly stood up and met Professor Oak’s eyes. “You have to guarantee safety be provided to our families…you have to understand that Johto and Kanto are about to erupt in civil war.” The lead ranger chuckled a little. “In fact I must be crazy…one retired league champion, two rogue league elite four members, and a handful of gym leaders not content to believe the party line taking on the entire league.”

“Well…unfortunately we have some bigger fish to fry. From the cameras outside it looks like you have more of your buddies out there that we have to deal with. On top of that someone needs to alert Ash as to what is going on…undoubtedly the communication lines will be cut before I can reach Ash with the mood he is in.” Gary grumbled the last part as he was a little mad with himself.  ‘Of course just my luck that I piss Ash off right before a major government coup taking place.’

Professor Oak hummed a little in agreement before turning back to the issue at hand. “All are welcome to relocate to Pallet town…Agatha is a fool to make an enemy so close to the League’s door step.” Professor Oak shook his head before turning his attention to Gary. “Gary…I think a welcome is in order…is Ash’s Charizard still at hand?”

Gary blanched a little at this request. “Sorry Gramps…umm Ash must have decided he needed more fire power. He switched out Pidgeot for Charizard earlier. I know he has run into some issues out there and he must have decided that more fire power was required.” Gary ended his explanation with a slight shrug as if to say “Well what can you do? It is Ash we are talking about here.”   

“Hmm…just as well I suppose. I think I have just the thing. We can hopefully convince them that Lance is here.” With that he held up the pokeball containing his own Dragonite before glancing around at the League Rangers and his grandson. “Gary you need to get to Ash and warn him. If I know Agatha she will send someone loyal to her that Ash trusts just enough…just enough to get close and kill him before he even knows he is in danger. Now that she has made her move she won’t leave it to chance that Red’s favorite will stay in retirement.”  

A thought struck Gary a moment later. “FUCK! “Lance” just sent Lucy the pikequeen to “assist” Ash and Brock…who the hell knows if that order actually came from Lance or not. Brock will walk into her pike with open arms and will be dead before he even knows what is going on if she was sent by Agatha.” Gary was ready to launch into another string of profanity laced curses before Professor Oak silenced him with a glare.

“Your mother would be appalled by your choice of language young man.” Oak showed he was not really too torn up over his grandson’s language with a small smirk playing on the edge of his lips.

Gary grunted in response before turning to the currently silent group of Rangers who had been watching the back and forth between the two professors for the past few minutes. “Ranger Lee I will need some cover to get clear of the rest of the Rangers lying in wait…any chance some of them will turn when they see you fighting with us?” Gary shot the men a winning smile as he readied his pokeballs for action just as his Grandfather appeared to be doing the same.

Lee shrugged a little before checking on his own pokeballs not to mention his baton to make sure it was ready in case he got into any hand to hand combat. “Touch and go…some may but probably not. I wouldn’t expect any further turncoats. The remaining Rangers are going to assume we have been turned and not of our own free will.” The lead Ranger turned to his small group before nodding to their pokeballs. “Get ready we will be outnumbered and outgunned.”

“Don’t be so sure.” Professor Oak shot a confident smile much like Gary’s towards the Rangers. “You see the pokemon on this ranch though loyal to their trainers first are also quite fond of me. I have taken care of some longer than their trainers have. This is why Agatha wanted to shut me down. I have a veritable army of pokemon from hundreds and hundreds of League certified Rangers, Trainers and Gym Leaders.”

Lee nodded a little at the Professor’s words. “Well Professor if you can back us up just may be able to hold the Ranch and make the Rangers retreat if they find themselves fighting against the entire ranch’s pokemon.” Lee glanced over at one of the younger Ranger’s a recruit if the girlish face was anything to go by. “Samantha you will be our rear guard. Anything that slips by the flanks will be your responsibility.” The no nonsense Ranger turned back to Professor Oak. “We should move now, every minute that ticks by will cause the Rangers in reserve to wonder what is taking us so long.”

“Gary…get yourself packed up and make sure you have a competent flying pokemon. You will probably have to fly to Hoenn region to avoid any unfortunate run ins with those loyal to Agatha.” Professor Oak signaled the Rangers to follow him as he led them towards the main door to the building. He shot a look towards his grandson.  “Gary once you are ready I want you to take the back exit and head into the woods. No matter what happens keep going. I will be fine with the help of the Rangers.”

Gary nodded a little trying to bury his concern by laughing a loud and acting nonchalant about the whole thing. “Well good luck Gramps don’t get yourself killed. I have to beat some sense into ol’ Ashy boy anyway. He is useless without me!” Gary left his Grandfather in the sitting room before heading towards the lab to pick up supplies and grab Ash’s Pidgeot for the long flight as he did not have any comparable flying types in his arsenal.

 

 

Rustboro City – Pokemon Center – Earlier that evening

 

Ash seemed to be staring straight through the wall in the small room he had secured for himself and Brock. He absently threw Charizard’s pokeball up and down, catching it effortlessly only to toss it in the air again.  His mind of course was not connected to the physical plan right now. The room’s only light source at the moment was the ray of moonlight peeking through the curtains.

“You know where he went Ash…it wouldn’t be that hard to go find her.” Brock’s voice cut through the silence of the night like a knife.

Ash paused in his game of catch with Charizard’s pokeball and turned his attention to the other bed in the room. He could see Brock’s coal black eyes in the dim lighting from here. “Brock…sorry I didn’t realize you were awake.”

“Of course I am awake Ash. You have been throwing that pokeball up and down for the last two hours straight.” Brock shot a small smirk towards his younger companion before sitting up in his bed and letting his feet rest on the floor. The older man just stared intently at Ash through the darkened room.

There was a pregnant pause in the room as the two just stared at each other before Ash unable to stand silence for very long decided to speak. “So why did you do it Brock? Why did you tell May about my past with Leaf.” Absently Ash started to stroke Pikachu’s soft fur. He was still pissed off at Brock for that but his anger had abated over the course of the evening. Of course roasting the Rustboro city’s gym leader had been a release valve for most of his anger.

Brock sighed before putting his head into his hands. “It kinda slipped out.  Well…part of it. I really only told her that Leaf had left.”

Ash acknowledged Brock’s explanation with a grunt. They both knew that Brock despite his normally calm demeanor was not exactly the most careful person regarding some subjects of his friend’s life.  “Well…whatever it won’t change the outcome. It was getting too dangerous for her to carry on with us anyway. We have a job to do Brock and I cannot afford a distraction like her. I am not concentrating on my true mission here.”

“Still the company has been nice.” Brock wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at his friend through the dark. Even though Ash may not have seen Brock’s facial expression he must have guessed it from the playful tone.

“The whole reason was to provide me with a cover Brock. Eventually though the risk versus reward ratio of the cover reverses and now that Rocket and this new group know I am here the cover is pointless.” Ash responded tonelessly before deciding that he was done with the discussion and wanted to go to sleep. “May is better off on her own Brock. Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow we will pick up Lucy and continue to Dewford Town.”

Ash heard Brock grunt an acknowledgement before laying back down. He was glad that Brock was not pushing the issue of May. Ash lay there on his side for another few hours unable to get his mind off of the young girl he had sent away before finally his body succumbed to sleep.

 

The Sea of Kanto – Cruise ship – 8 hours until landing in Rustboro City.

 

Lucy’s eyes slid open at the sudden rustling of noise outside of her cabin door. She lay there for a moment just listening when she heard the distinctive jiggling of her door handle. A normal person would assume that it was a drunk at the wrong door but she had not become the Pike Queen and survived the Rocket wars by being anything but cautious.

The tall woman slowly slid the sheets off of her body and pulled her collapsible pike staff from her bag at the bottom of her bed. “hn…” The jiggling still had not stopped and if she had not awoken to their earlier attempts she may not have even awoken to their now quiet attempts to open the door.

The cabin door slowly eased open letting a sliver of light in from the hallway. Lucy couldn’t get a good look at the assailant with the light coming in against the darkened room. Lucy eased herself further into the corner and let the intruder make his or her way further into the room.

Now that the intruder was in the room she could see that they were dressed like a ninja. Lucy’s authoritative voice cut through the silence. “Who dares enter the room of the Pike Queen Lucy!” She snapped her collapsible Pike into place with a flourish of her hand.

The ninja turned without making a sound. A moment later Lucy found herself on the defensive when the ninja threw a series of kunai knives towards where the sound of Lucy’s voice came from.

“Fool! To take on the Pike Queen will be your death!” Lucy spun her pike in the confined space and managed to deflect or dodge the thrown kunai. She brought her pike’s staff side in a sweeping arc in an attempt to catch the ninja but unfortunately the assassin was quite nimble and danced back from the attack.

Lucy had to bring her pike up in front of her to catch the next attack from the Ninja. The Pike Queen brought her staff up and across to deflect the ninja’s punch before pushing the ninja back with her staff by catching him in the chest. ‘I need to get out of this confined space if I want to finish this guy off.’

She took the opportunity to run out of her room while the ninja was recovering from her last blow. Lucy glanced back and dived down one of the side hallways to the right to avoid another spread of kunai knives from her pursuer.

‘No time to slow down now!’ Lucy grimaced in pain from landing on her shoulder but she forced herself back to her feet and continued to make her way up to the main deck. ‘Made it!’ She thought with a grin before turning towards the entry way she just exited. Now that she was in the open she could use her pike to her advantage.

“Shit!” Lucy once again found herself on the defensive despite the advantage of open space. The kunai spread came in from her right. Lucy managed to once again deflect the attack but she realized that the original assailant had not been alone. Black shapes seemed to appear all across the deck from nowhere. “Weaklings! You fight with no honor! I will take you all on!” Lucy spun her pike once before beckoning the ninja team forward with her free hand. She would kill them all for daring to attack her or die trying.

She brought her pike down to deflect another wave of Kunai before picking her target. She was in no mood to play with these annoying assassins. Of course being a Frontier Brain she was no stranger to fighting with the odds stacked against her. She took a running leap and brought her pike down in a hard drive right into an unsuspecting ninja’s chest. A dispassionate look crossed her face as she took a moment to watch the blood gurgle out of the new hole she just created.  Pulling the pike out with a sucking sound she once again leapt away from the dying ninja. She threw out two pokeballs this time since she needed some help. “Go Seviper! Go Snorlax! Eliminate the threats!”

Seviper appeared by one of the other ninja and immediately sunk its fangs into the thigh of the ninja. A moment later the poisonous snake wrapped itself around the ninja and started to strangle the life out of the poor man. Snorlax appearance brought about an unexpected consequence. The heavy weight pokemon caused the back of the ship to pop up into the air momentarily until the weight displacement was corrected.

In the meantime though the appearance of Snorlax caused most of the ship to awaken judging from the screaming coming from inside the ship. Lucy landed in perfect form already expecting Snorlax’s grand entrance. A small smirk crossed her lips as she swung her pike knocking one of the ninjas that was already off balance into the ocean below.

Snorlax roared in anger when he was peppered by kunai knives from the attacking ninjas. The giant pokemon reached down to the nearest pest and grabbed the ninja. Snorlax roared again in a rage before crushing the ninja. The ninja was then thrown carelessly to the deck. The body was completely crushed with blood and other bodily fluids leaking out from every orifice.

Lucy was about to join the fight again when a kunai sunk into her right calf. Lucy cried out in surprise before looking up at her assailant. The offending enemy was a slim blue haired girl with a happy smile on her face. “I am sorry to have to kill you but I need your face!”

Duplica brought another knife into Lucy’s side before she had a chance to respond to the original attack. The blue haired girl had to dance back as the tip of Lucy’s pike grazed her cheek from the wild swing that Lucy had taken. “Now now…there is no need for that. Such anger! I don’t normally like portraying angry people but for my Master I will do anything.”

Lucy grimaced in pain and her hand instinctively went to hold her side from the knife wound that Duplica had put into her side. The knife still in her calf wasn’t helping matters much either. She grunted out a painful gasp as she forced herself to roll to the side to avoid Duplica’s sword coming down on her head.

Duplica glared at the older woman as she flipped her sword around and brought it down again on Lucy. This time her attack was blocked by the pike. “Stop being so difficult! I just need you to die!” With a roar the blue haired girl brought her blade down and into Lucy’s shoulder causing the older woman to scream in pain.

“Bitch!” Lucy screamed before plunging her pike in response to Duplica’s strike into the younger girl’s thigh. The pike queen had enough time to admire her handy work before Duplica brought her good leg up in a snap kick. The blow knocked Lucy off of the boat and into the ocean below.

The first thing that she felt upon entering the water was how cold it was and also how tired she was after the fighting and the loss of blood. Lucy felt her eyes close as she sunk beneath the waves.

 

Rustboro City – Harbor

 

Ash and Brock were standing at the harbor watching the large cruise ship come into dock. Ash felt a sweat drop cross his face as he took in all the obvious battle damage that appeared to be all across the ship’s front end. “What the hell happened to the ship…it get raided or something?”

“Pikkkaaaa….” Pikachu agreed with Ash as his wide black orbs took in the front railing half hanging off of the side of the ship. Parts of the ship had what looked to be giant fist shaped holes in them as well.

Brock just grunted as he was more interested in seeing his beautiful Lucy again. “Oh no my beautiful Lucy! She is injured! I am coming princess of my heart!” Brock took off upon seeing Lucy limping down the gang plank to the harbor below.

“Seriously Brock this is kind of getting pathetic.” Ash muttered so only Pikachu could hear. The electric rodent simply nodded in agreement with his master.

The dark haired Ranger arrived at the bottom of the gang plank just in time to see Lucy being helped down by Brock. The girl was favoring her left leg it seemed and had dressing wrapped around her pants leg. “Hey Lucy…what the hell happened to you?” Ash asked as he took the girl’s other side and allowing her to rest most of her body weight between the two men.

“Thanks.” Lucy said in her normal no nonsense voice. The Pike Queen normally was not one to mince words so her short responses really weren’t out of the ordinary. “Assassins attempted to kill me. I took offense to their attempts and with the assistance of Snorlax…took care of the problem.”

Brock seemed to float along half dragging Lucy and Ash with him. “Oh Lucy we must get you to the hospital to tend your wounds! Come my darling I will help heal you with my love!”

Lucy’s eyebrow twitched a little before the back of her hand came down on Brock’s head and drilled the tanned ex-gym leader into the ground. “I am fine! We need to get out of the city and on with your mission.” ‘And away from any possible assistance as well.’ Lucy’s eyes glinted slightly before looking towards her belt for an appropriate pokeball. A frown marred her features as she noticed the pokeballs that were Seviper’s and Snorlax’s were blinking an angry and constant red. ‘So they realize I am not their master. Well no worries her other pokemon haven’t realized the betrayal yet.’

“I shall use my Rapidash for transportation.” With a slight smirk she released Rapidash and started to near the horse. She placed her hand on the fire horse’s side before drawing back with a hiss. Her hand turned a bright red from the burn. Rapidash appeared to realize something was wrong immediately and had started its fire spin attack.

“Return!” Lucy yelled quickly before the Rapidash could complete its attack. The horse returned in a beam of red light and it started to blink furiously in sync with the other two. Lucy noted the questioning looks she was receiving and returned their looks with an even stare. “We recently had a difference of opinion. Apparently she is still angry over the issue.” Without further comment she threw out another pokeball this time her personal Ditto. “Go! Venasaur!” Lucy nodded in satisfaction that Ditto turned into Venasaur before the light of Ditto’s release faded away. With the help of Ash she managed to get herself up onto her giant pokemon.

Brock of course was fawning over Lucy’s new pokemon. “Oh it suits you so well my dark haired angel!”

Ash tuned out the rest of Brock’s fawning as the group headed out of town sans May and Max Maple. Ash took one last glance back at the city from the forest entrance before shaking his head and turning back to the task at hand. He had a mission and he was not going to think about May Maple ever again, it had been fun and an enjoyable experience but she was safer traveling with her brother.

 

Pallet Town – Oak Labs

 

Gary ran out the back door hoping that the League officials would be concerned with the fire fight taking place on the front lawn. Gary heard Dragonite’s roar prior to the whole front lawn lighting up with a massive dragon flame attack. During his run towards the forest Gary caught bits and pieces of the fight when a lightning or fire based attack lit up the night. From what he could tell Gramps and the Rangers were currently handling everything. At least they were until he felt an icy wind blow in past him from the North.

Agatha had arrived in the company of her ghost army. The crone leaned upon her cane, her milky white eyes staring directly at Professor Oak. Her voice was creaky from disuse. “Samuel…I had a feeling you would be causing issues.” The milky white eyes took in the Rangers currently fighting against her own. A small smirk crossing her face before turning her attention back to Professor Oak. “I see you have even swayed some young fools to your side. No matter…”

If Professor Oak was surprised by Agatha’s appearance his showed nothing on his face. Instead he greeted the old woman in his congenial voice he used with friends and strangers alike. “Ah Agatha! I would have been quite put off if you had not shown up in person. Threatening a person is an art form and done best in person.”

“Hn..still the same old Samuel…arrogant and blasé as always even with death staring him in the face.” The old crone leaned forwards on her cane and turned her head to the side. A moment later a large Gengar came out of the ground. The Gengar took in its surroundings a moment before turning towards Agatha awaiting an order.

Professor Oak watched for a moment as a Dusknoir also appeared from the ground on Agatha’s other side. A moment after the high level pokemon appeared Agatha’s ghost army appeared. Due to Agatha’s deep connection with the spirit world the lower level ghost pokemon tended to flock to her presence. Most of the ghost types consisted of Ghastly and Duskull but Oak noted the occasional Shuppet in the mix.

“My my Agatha you brought quite the entourage just to deal with me. I should feel honored I suppose.” Professor Oak casually tossed out his own two pokemon in response to Agatha’s pokemon. “Ninetails your assistance and you too Ampharos.”

The white fox with nine tails appeared next to a giant yellow creature that vaguely appeared to look like a kangaroo and giraffe combined together.

“Shall we cut to the chase, Agatha? I just had my evening tea and I would like to be done with this as soon as possible.” Oak stated with a smile on his face.

“Arrogant as always Samuel.” Agatha shook her head in annoyance before pointing towards Professor Oak’s pokemon. “Gengar! Shadow ball barrage! Dusknoir follow up with shadow punch!”

Right as Gengar’s shadow ball barrage was starting up Professor Oak yelled his counter to his own pokemon. “Ninetails! Ampharos! Dig!”

The two pokemon disappeared from sight causing both of the ghost pokemon to miss their target. The shadow barrage peppered the ground around professor Oak but luckily Hypno’s well-timed arrival shielded the professor from any harm. “Ah thank you Hypno…I forget in my old age that battling is not quite like it used to be.”

Agatha stared at Oak for a moment before turning her attention back to the battle. “Dusknoir launch a toxic attack down those holes! Gengar help that poison along with rain dance!” Agatha smirked a little watching Oak’s panic as he watched the toxic slide down the hole. Gengar’s rain dance attack assisted in moving the toxic along by creating a small flood of water into the ground.

“Ninetails! Turn around and use fire blast! Burn it before it hits! Ampharos out of the hole now!”

Ampharos appeared out of the tunnel before the toxic managed to hit it. It ran right into Gengar’s sucker punch though and was thrown to the ground. Unfortunately for Gengar, Ampharos’s static ability had activated causing Gengar to become paralyzed temporarily. “Gen gen gar!” It groaned in pain from the unforeseen consequence of physical contact.

Dusknoir had a similar back fire. The ghost pokemon had not backed up enough from the tunnel and was burned by the fire blast venting through the only exit in the area.

“Ninetails reappear and use sunny day to brighten up the skies!” With it being night the sunny day attack cleared up the rain from Gengar’s earlier attack and caused the moon to glow all the brighter.

“Dusknoir! Take advantage and use shadow punch!” Agatha watched as a large fist appeared from the shadow’s that had appeared thanks to the moon brightening from sunny day and watched as it rocketed into Ninetails side.

Professor Oak watched helplessly as Ninetails flew into the woods from the strength of the punch. He glared at Agatha a moment before turning to Ampharos. “Thunder! Follow it up with Wild Charge!” Oak shot a confident smile towards Agatha before he shielded his eyes. A large column of lightning came down from the heaven’s striking Gengar but missing Dusknoir as the ghost pokemon was too far away.

Gengar was already down from the thunder attack and had been unable to hold intangible form. Ampharos tackled Gengar and knocked the ghost pokemon out of the battle in its final charge.

“Dusknoir finish this with Bulldoze.” Agatha directed with a superior smile. Dusknoir slammed it’s hands down on the ground. The tremors shook the exhausted Ampharos into unconsciousness.

Agatha turned to Professor Oak her milky eyes confident for a moment before she took in her surroundings. Her ghost army had been defeated. The pokemon of Oak Ranch had awoken and realized that their home was under attack. Despite the overwhelming numbers of her army the human trained pokemon had caused her ghost army to flee from superior fire power.

“Surprised Agatha? As usual you are too wrapped up in a single task to pay attention to the big picture.” Oak smiled congenially before pointing towards Dusknoir. “You have yet to realize that this causes you to lose both the battle and the war! Now Ninetails end this senseless battle. Payback!”

There was a brief glow of blue from the trees before a force of power rammed right into Dusknoir forcing the pokemon out of this plane of existence.

 

Agatha watched in disbelief as one of her most powerful pokemon was literally vaporized before her eyes.

Professor Oak recalled his battle damaged pokemon and started to walk away before pausing at the door. “Agatha…I am too old to play these power games and I have killed enough in my time. Do as you will but threaten my ranch again or the people of Pallet Town and mark my words.” Professor Oak turned to look back at Agatha a hard glare leveled right at the milky eyed crone. “I will retire Professor Oak and I shall once again take up the mantle of Grand Champion Oak the Destroyer.”

Without any further comment Professor Oak returned to the inside of his research lab with the Rangers that had sided with him in tow.

Agatha stared in horror at the spot where Professor Oak had once stood. It was sometimes hard to remember that Professor Oak had once held the title of Grand Champion. Prior to the Rocket Wars the different regions had been united under a single council and at its head Oak the Destroyer. The man had been an army all on his own. He had suppressed a combined Unova and Kalos rebellion all by himself. Of course suppressing amounted to Oak completely destroying every single city in the region.

Taking a moment to gather herself up Agatha decided to leave this issue alone. She had been too hasty in trying to contain Oak and now Samuel not only knew her power play but had set down an ultimatum, mess with Pallet Town and he would destroy her.

The old crone glanced towards the forest for a moment and smirked a little. “Well at least my favored apprentice is dealing with the grandson.”

Agatha cackled before disappearing in a wind of shadows and headed back towards Indigo League.

 

A/N: Alright well here is the update. Next chapter will be more battles. I know I have probably just super complicated this story even further but no worries most of the fun will take place in Hoenn. I basically needed a reason to get Gary over to Hoenn and knock some sense into Ash. Next chapter will be focused on a battle between Gary and Agatha’s apprentice along with focusing on May’s response to Ash’s less than stellar ultimatum. Eh hopefully this story isn’t sucking too hard and some people continue to read it. Anyway I will attempt to keep the time frame between chapters down to two months max but again we shall see. Thanks again to everyone who had read and favorited the story. You can all thank Ultimate Darkness for assisting in giving me a kick in the ass.

 


	11. Route 105 - Storm Drain

Route 105 – Storm Drain

 

A/N: Lies all lies! Every one of my A/N’s is full of slanderous lies…as usual I have diverted from what I said I was going to cover in the next chapter. One day…one day. I know my grammar is something to be desired so if anyone wants to sign on as a Beta/Editor let me know.

Route 104 – enroute to route 105 – on board the boat Angel’s Adoration

Throwing up over the side of the boat for the third time in Ash did not know how many days was not a desired activity. Unfortunately for the young Ranger he was once again hanging onto the side rail of the small boat for dear life before losing his lunch. Even after he finished spitting up the last few chunks of whatever sandwich he had eaten early that day, he still felt the ill effects of the boat’s rocking back and forth. “Stupid Brock booking this stupid boat based on the name.” The Ranger grumbled unhappily.

Ash stared at his reflection over the side of the small boat and groaned a little from the green look in his face. The Captain had joked that he would get his sea legs yet. Brock of course was busy attempting to woo Lucy with his patented Brock charm…which basically meant that the squinty eyed man was following the squinty eyed woman around like a lost puppy dog.

“Chuu….” Pikachu patted his trainer with a sympathetic look in its large eyes.

“…Thanks Pikachu, why don’t you go ahead and go back below deck and finish your nap.” Ash managed to pat the yellow rodent on the head, being an electric type the mouse did not have an affinity for water.

Pikachu gave his master a questioning look before bounding off below deck on the small finish boat. The boat was a small vessel for the scope of travel they were taking. Captain Haddock had informed them that the boat could make the journey without an issue, Ash had some doubt about that but there was not much he could do at this point. Speaking of the older man, the captain chose that moment to call down from the elevated wheelhouse that sat about 14 feet off the main deck.

“Ya alright down there laddie? Ya gonna hav’ ta work harter ta keep tha food down if ya wanna live ta make land fall.” The Captain chortled at his own joke before just laughing more at the displeased look the young lad was shooting him.

“How in hell did ya make it ta Hoenn in one piece laddie?”

Barely managing to hold in another round of bile from coming up, Ash managed to glare up at the old man at the helm. He half willed the old codger to fall over the glass windshield that the Captain was currently leaning over to converse with him. “Flew.”

“Ah…well if ya dun mind ma askin’ when da ya think tha lova’ birds will surface from below? Someone’ll needa catch dinna and it certainly don’t appear ya are in any shape fer it.” The Captain had a self-satisfied smirk on his face while thinking about the lovely young lady who had persuaded him to help the young group of trainers get to Dewford town. “Ya lady friend o’ course bein excluded from ship duties.”

“Yeah I noticed.” Ash muttered petulantly more to himself than to the Captain. He briefly went over the pokemon that he had on hand. Lucario wouldn’t do…nor would Pikachu…the damn rodent barely tolerated being below deck. Of course he had Charizard…but who the hell knows how he would respond to such an order…probably burn the ship down. Arcanine was similarly out due to a combination of fears that he would respond like Charizard and Pikachu combined together…first burning down the ship enraged at being surrounded by water. This would be quickly followed by pure panic at the realization that he just torched his only barrier from the water. Gengar was a maybe but the ghost pokemon was half as likely to fill the ship with fish as he was to fill it with rotting fish as a practical joke.

This of course left Ash with only one semi viable option…that being Gardevoir. He was hesitant to dispatch the pokemon as he had been actively blocking her from accessing his mind since his hasty departure from Rustboro without May. ”Shit…this is not going to be fun.”

Turning his attention to the Captain, Ash glared at the old man momentarily for putting him in the situation, though to be honest if he had just kept Pidgeot this would not be an issue. “I’ll take care of it.”

Ash quickly turned around again before puking his goat out into the crystal waters below. Behind him the old man was laughing again at the young man’s unfortunate situation. “Well ga crackin’ ya may be able ta catch ya dinna ‘efore ya puke up all ya lunch laddie!” The old man chuckled before turning his attention back to sea.

“Go Gardevoir!” Ash half heartedly released his psychic pokemon in a flash of white light. The moment Gardevoir appeared, Ash knew he was in trouble from the glare he was receiving.

 _‘You realize I am displeased with you Ash Ketchum.’_ The pokemon’s voice floated through his mind with a sharp edge to it.

“Yeah…sorry Gardevoir…I really promise I will never do it again!” Ash managed to pull off a winning smile…while absently wiping a bit of bile from his cheek. So really an abject failure judging from the pokemon’s folded ethereal arms.

 _‘It is a wonder you don’t have women running into your arms with charm like that._ ’ The less than pleased Gardevoir responded sarcastically.

“Heh…yeah…” Ash trailed off while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly trying to think of a way to get out of the conversation he knew would inevitably lead to the girl Gardevoir had assisted in saving and had been traveling with them. A complete 180 was in order! “Well Gardevoir I am on fishing duty and you kinda are the only one that can help…” Ash trailed off hopefully.

 _‘…I see so I take it that you have once again decided to settle on the good old slash and burn methodology and traded Pidgeot for Charizard then?’_ Gardevoir questioned her master with a hint of amusement running through her psychic connection.

For his part Ash just mock glared at his pokemon with a petulant look coming over his face at his pokemon’s pointed assessment. Instead of answering directly he simply grumbled unhappily over the ribbing. “Save the country and you get a medal before they forget about you in a year.  Burn down a portion! Portion of a village and they never let you live it down.”

Gardevoir floated closer to her master, amusement over the situation alight in her eyes. ‘ _Yes well I believe the villagers did make a stink over the fact you burned down their sacred temple. I mean really Ash…Charizard AND Arcanine was going overboard but unleashing Salamence was just over kill.’_

Instead of acknowledging his pokemon’s points he just decided to ignore her in favor of going back to looking over the railing. He all of a sudden did not feel particularly great…again. “Well could you just get back to fishing.”

 _‘Of course…by the way…what ever happened to that young girl traveling with us?  I can sense the horn dog and another I am unfamiliar with below…but I would think…’_ Gardevoir’s eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing her trainer suddenly freeze up.

_‘You didn’t!’_

“Well you see…Gardevoir…” This was it…game over nothing left to live for, death at sea by his own pokemon…damn he should have seen this one coming. The longer he thought about it the crappier excuses he came up with…so he just went with the truth. “Well…umm yeah…I uh…wanted to protect her.”

 _‘So you sent her off on her own then with no other protection to protect her?’_ Once again the tone carried a heavy dose of sarcasm.

“Well it sounds stupid when you put it like that…” Ash muttered unhappily to his psychic pokemon. “And she isn’t alone!” Grasping the tiny bit of hope to get himself out of trouble with his pokemon he went for it. “I left her in the care of her brother!”

_‘Her older brother who of course must be a fully trained pokemon tamer and is fully equipped to deal with high level threats from the assailants that of course know she was traveling with you and have marked her as a target at this point to get to you? I know you would never be so foolish to do anything else being a fully trained League Ranger that is able to assess and make the best tactical judgment call in a moment’s notice.’_

Blushing bright red from embarrassment over the issue that Gardevoir pointed out, he slowly started sinking against the railing. “Younger brother…”

Sighing mentally across their link in frustration , Gardevoir rolled her eyes at her trainer’s immaturity and ability to plan ahead. _‘I suppose I will help you catch fish as I have scolded you enough…but don’t think this is over!’_

Without so much as another word the psychic pokemon made her way to the ship’s front end and used her psychic attack to lift a net from the deck and casting it into the water.

This left Ash to continue his vigil at the side of the boat staring off into the blue skies. A hint of concern crossed Ash’s face when he caught a glimpse of dark storm clouds roiling across the sky at the western most edges of his peripheral vision.  

 

Professor Oak’s Ranch – property line

“Scald shot!”

Barely managing to fall out of the way of the super-heated water, Gary quickly realized he had not gotten away clean from the battle.

“Ah shit!” Gary managed to pull his fall into a roll before releasing a pokeball that hung at his waist. The red and white pokeball half fell to the ground before the large shape of the giant blue turtle pokemon appeared in front of Gary.

Managing to get his balance again, Gary turned towards where the original shot was fired from but saw nothing in the darkened forest. “Come on punk! By attacking the great Gary Oak you have signed your own death warrant!”

The pair did not have to wait long before they heard the rumbling coming from within the trees. A scarred Blastoise broke through the underbrush. The giant turtle pokemon should have been a mirror to Gary’s own. Instead this Blastoise was missing one of it’s trademark cannons and the face was heavily scarred. A moment later the trainer appeared by Blastoise’s side. Wrapped in a tattered clock the frail woman placed a hand on Blastoise’s side before turning her attention to the danger at hand that stood before her.

“Professor Oak…the younger…I see you still have misplaced faith in your abilities.”

“Che! I realized my limits a long time ago and though I may not be top notice Ranger material, I still have enough power to take care of you. Now out of my way! Blastoise! Hydro Cannon!”

Gary’s Blastoise quickly fell to all fours to handle the artillery attack’s recoil. Blastoise roared before two giant torrents of water propelled into the enemy Blastoise.  

The scarred Blastoise took the brunt of the attack on his shell without much of a comment. It carefully aimed the singular water cannon at Gary before firing off a high powered water gun.

Throwing himself to the side once more to avoid the enemy pokemon’s attack, Gary ended up rolling right into a tree. Grunting his pain he grabbed his shoulder before managing to push through the pain. “Blastoise quick hit him with water pledge and follow it up with a brick break attack!”

“Hammer use withdraw!” The still cloaked figure yelled out when she heard Gary’s attack pattern. She nodded with satisfaction when the column of water bounced harmlessly off of Hammer’s shell and was redirected into the sky.

This of course still left the problem of the charging Blastoise that was rapidly approaching Hammer with glowing fists. Gary only had a moment to realize that the bitch had drawn him into a trap.

“Hyper beam…point plank crack his shell like an oyster.”

“Blastoise no! Iron Defense!” Gary yelled in a panic as he watched on helplessly at his charging pokemon.

Hammer withdrew from his shell the golden beam of light already charging in his mouth. The bedeviled pokemon almost appeared to have a smile on his face before unleashing the golden beam of hellfire point blank into Blastoise.

One moment Blastoise appeared to be charging and the next moment he was consumed by the golden light.

“Your tactics are so predictable Gary, same old tune, distract and attack.” A feral grin crossed the young woman’s face as she finally threw back her hood. “I of course prefer the head on approach, but you already know that don’t you Gary!” The hooded woman shared a heavily scarred face just like her Blastoise. Her left eye was a colorless white that no longer held a pupil or iris, surrounding this was a heavy scar that ran from her hair line to her neck. Deep scars crossed most of her right cheek and most of her eyebrow was missing on her left side as well. The one good eye though was a crystal blue and it was currently narrowed.

Of course Gary recognized her immediately, no one else in this region had the fiery orange hair that Misty of the sensational three had. It had originally been four but of course prior to the Rocket wars. A fact that Gary was intimately aware of.

“Well Misty…I would say it was a pleasure but you are a bit of a psychotic bitch.” Gary glanced over to check on his Blastoise and was relieved to see that his pokemon had managed to use his iron defense in time. The shellfish pokemon was shaking off the bits of broken shell from its frame and slowly stood back up.

Misty glared at Gary with her one good eye before turning to her Blastoise. “Finish him Hammer! Giga Impact!”

Gary was torn as his Blastoise had taken a heavy amount of damage and he knew that Blastoise could not take a direct hit like that. “Blastoise! Blast off with Water fall and then follow it up with water spin!”

Following his master’s orders without question, Blastoise performed a hand stand…quite impressive for such a large pokemon really, before firing his water cannons directly into the ground. The giant turtle managed to push itself into the air just in time on the twin streams of water. Misty’s Blastoise charged right through the spot where Gary’s once stood without hitting anything.

In the moment it took for Hammer to recover from the needless expenditure of energy, Blastoise fell from the sky. While in the middle of the air he had withdrawn into his shell and used his water cannons to create a vicious spin. The water circulated at such a speed that it formed a water spout as it tore through the trees and branches on a direct path towards Hammer.

Misty stood in shock as she watched her nigh unbeatable Blastoise become trapped into the spinning funnel of water. While Gary’s Blastoise continued to spin around in the funnel itself.

Hammer roared in pain as it was continually hammered from Blastoise’s rapid spin attack. While Hammer was trapped in the water and unable to gain momentum, Blastoise flowed through the water in the funnel almost effortlessly in his spinning shell and continued to ram Hammer at every opportunity.

With a sudden crack Hammer roared in pain before falling to the ground after Blastoise ceased his water spin attack.

When the water funnel finally dissipated it left a Blastoise that was completely tired out rest on its haunches over his fallen enemy. Hammer was left on the ground with a steadily expanding pool of dark liquid leaking out of from under his shell.   


“HAMMER! NO!” Misty screamed in realization that Gary had almost killed her oldest friend. Misty was in tears as she recalled her dying pokemon. “Return!” Misty glanced down at the pokeball with some relief that it was beating a steady black, which meant that while dying, Hammer wasn’t dead yet. “Stabilize!” Clicking in her pokeball a second time she sighed in relief when the stasis took ergo saving her pokemon for the moment at least.

“You fucking monster! First Lily and now Hammer!” Misty turned her anger back to Gary as she carefully returned her pokeball to her belt, she would need to retreat soon if she was going to save him.

Gary similarly returned his pokemon since the battle was clearly over. He decided mentioning that Misty attacked first was not going to help the unstable girl at the moment. “Che, did all that care under Team Rocket’s tender mercies scramble your brain that badly! Lily chose to come with me to save your ass so don’t get all high and mighty with me!”

“You as good as killed her Gary Oak!” Screaming back was not exactly a sign of maturity but ever since her time in Rocket custody she found her rational side was not exactly in control. “You left her there in that botched rescue!”

Gary shook his head in frustration at Misty’s unwillingness to see the truth for what it was. “She gave her life so you could live you ungrateful bitch. Is this how you repay her? By saddling up with Agatha? Do you think she gives a shit about you? By now Gramps has probably handed her, her ass.” Crossing his arms he stared expectantly at Misty.

“Lily died because of your failure as a trainer! If you were one half the trainer Ash was she would have survived!”

Irrationality was never charming and at the level Misty was at, it was just downright sad. Gary’s glare lessoned and he just shook his head before releasing Ash’s Pidgeot. “I am not Ash, Misty, I learned to accept that a long time ago. I regret thinking I could take on the entire Rocket base with only Lily’s help and I will never forget that day. My inexperience and ego cost a brilliant young woman her life…but!” Gary raised his finger before pointing it directly at Misty. “I have learned from that day and I have grown to accept that under the circumstances I did the best I could to get everyone, including you, out alive.”

“Just because Daisy and Violet forgave you doesn’t mean I won’t kill you Gary!” Misty screamed before dropping to the ground and fell in on herself. She looked a miserable retch with the tears running down her ruined face, curtsey of Team Rocket. “Agatha promised me…she promised me I could kill you.”

Watching Misty dissolve into this was just sad. Gary understood he would have to be careful from now on, he knew that Misty resented him and really hated him but he never thought that it would be to this level. Gary mounted up on Pidgeot and got the flying type skyward in a matter of moments.

He glanced down one last time while Misty was still in sight and saw the broken girl raging and clawing at the dirt. The girl never thought past the pain she felt. Sighing a bit in both exhaustion and annoyance he turned Pidgeot towards Hoenn absent mindedly. In his mind he replayed that day. The day he lost almost his entire team of pokemon to his sheer over confidence and lost the love of his life to Team Rocket’s troops on the ground.

_Rocket Wars Era – Enroute to Black Hall_

_Laughing aloud Gary shot a confident grin at his girlfriend Lily. “Come on Lils, we have six other high level trainers with us. Not to mention yours truly the future Champion of Kanto!”_

_Playfully hitting her boyfriend’s chest, Lily managed to find a shaky smile. “Like Gary…I know, it is just Daisy and Violet did make a good point about waiting for league reinforcements.”_

_Gary clutched his heart and placed a look of mock hurt on his face. “You stab me Lil! Right to the heart babe, are you saying we should leave Misty to Rocket’s tender loving any longer than we have to when A.J. went to all that work to find the location just for League reinforcements.”_

_Sighing a bit she just gave in and shook her head a little. A rueful smile slowly crossed Lily’s features as she stared at her ever confident boyfriend. “You know I want to save Misty as soon as possible. I wouldn’t be coming with your merry band Sir Robin Hood.”_

_Ever the show off Gary managed to pull himself to his feet atop his Aerodactyl that the two were riding on. “Why thank you milady you humble this brave soul!” He took a bow and almost lost his balance when they hit some turbulence. With a grin he fell gracelessly into Lily’s lap and right into her chest by “accident” when they hit another wind gust._

_“Gary!” Lily found herself shrieking as she pushed her boyfriend off of her chest, her face was now burning a bright red. “Like watch yourself buster or you will be sleeping on the sofa tonight whether you get injured in this raid or not!”_

_Laughing again at Lily’s agitation, he pulled himself…reluctantly off of his girlfriend. “Come on Lils you are gonna be fine, you are with me!” Gary managed to sit himself upright and stared ahead to try and judge how far they were from the Rocket interrogation base, code named Black Hall. Supposedly per A.J.’s sources this was where any high priority targets were taken and Misty being one of the Sensational Four of Celadon was considered high priority. Mostly thanks to the fact she was one of the primary reasons that Celadon remained in League control._

_“Gary! Gary!” A Beedrill floated over from the left side and the green haired man on the back waved to get Gary’s attention._

_Shaking himself out of his thoughts he managed to send a grin at A.J. “You got visual?”_

_“Yeah! Straight ahead about half a mile! The others are landing soon!”_

_Gary nodded a little as he once again peered ahead and he could now see the garrison. From above it barely looked like a spec. As with most of Team Rocket’s bases the top level was barely more than the size of a modern house. The rest of the base was usually deep underground. This was how Team Rocket had managed to set up locations all throughout the Kanto/Johto region with minimal detection._

_Snapping his fingers he smiled at his own genius. “Got it! Alright A.J. I want you, Lils, Brendon, and what the fuck….that little dude…obsessed with bugs?”_

_When he received blank stares from both his compatriots he just shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “Well whatever, take Lils and two others. I want you to use that Sandslash to burrow underground and find the prisoners.”_

_“And what are you going to do oh mighty General.” A.J. snorted in derision._

_Grinning in response Gary pointed a finger at the top of the base that was now coming in range. He could already see the Rocket troops scrambling as they probably had not missed the giant target that was Aerodactyl. “I’m gonna go kick an ant hill and show them I don’t need no stinkin Ranger title to show them to the curb.”_

_“Hey Lils get on with A.J. I am gonna distract them.”_

_“Just be careful sweetie!” Lily giggled a little at Gary’s grandstanding before leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek. “That was for good luck. There will be more where that came from if you manage to keep my pretty ass safe.”_

_A.J. just grumbled at the overly touchy feely good bye between the two. Once Lily was safely on his Beedrill he took off in a dive towards the ground to grab two of the other five remaining trainers to come with him and Lily on the extraction mission._

_The moment Beedrill disappeared from his view Gary lined up his sights on the base below. “Alright Aerodactyl let’s kick the nest with a hyper beam attack! Rake pattern!”_

_The giant stone fossil pokemon roared an acknowledgement. A moment later it let out a wave of golden hell fire below which consumed all in its path. Aerodactyl was unable to pivot his head due to the tremendous power rocketing from his mouth. The giant stone fossil was able to rake the beam across the ground by strafing left to right by tilting his wings and managed to wreck devastation below._

_Grinning in satisfaction he directed Aerodactyl to land while the Rocket members and their pokemon recovered from the chaos wrought by the golden hell fire of the hyper beam attack._

_The moment he was close enough Gary tossed two pokeballs out followed by another two. Gary’s Nidoqueen and Nidoking duo were the first that appeared. The heavy weight pokemon roared a challenge to the Rocket Troops that were starting to pour out of the underground entrance that surprisingly had only been damaged and not destroyed._

_Scizor and Pinsir appeared a moment later both calling out their own challenges._

_“Alright Nidoking and Nidoqueen you take the heavy hits and knock them down! Scizor and Pinsir you guys clean up the stragglers.”_

_The two Nido evolutions quickly got to work using dual earthquake attacks, horn drills, and mega punches to clear the area of pokemon and Rocket troops alike. Once the enemy was down Scizor flew in using it’s claws to quickly remove limbs or heads from their bodies._

_Pinsir used a more gruesome method to take out its prey. The stag pokemon would use the giant pinchers on its head to trap a Rocket member or a pokemon before drawing the prey into its mouth. The stag beetle pokemon had an unhealthy taste for flesh and was enjoying the easy meals._

_“Erg…seriously Pinsir…issues man issues.” Gary grumbled a bit before putting his hand onto Aerodactyl. “Alright buddy I need you to be aerial support. Anyone tries to get too far out make sure you either turn them back into the kill zone or take care of them. I don’t want anyone flanking us.”_

_The giant fossil pokemon took the air with a screech of acknowledgement. He could only hope that Aerodactyl understood his instructions, Gary was never too sure how smart the giant flying rock head was to be quite honest._

_Turning his attention back to the battle at hand he was pleased to see that they had created a choke point with the help of the other three trainers to keep the Rocket members from gaining a foothold out of the base’s entrance._

_“Alright Nidoking! Nidoqueen keep it up!” Gary yelled encouragement to his pokemon a confident grin crossing his face once more. They were going to win and quite handily too. ‘So what if Ash just obtained Ranger class recently. This little fight will make sure the League takes notice of true talent. I bet they will even promote me to Elite Ranger after this.’_

_“Hey chumps!” Yelling at his current allies, who judging from the looks on their faces looked none too pleased with Gary’s use of the word in reference to them, Gary waved towards the entrance. “It looks like these losers are about mopped up…and Pinsir is about full for that matter. Let’s flash fry any suckers still looking to get out of there!”_

_“Nidoking and Nidoqueen flame thrower!”_

_Gary heard similar cries from the Vulpix, Magmar, Torkoal, and Volcarona that belonged to his current team mates. The sweet and sickly smell of charred human flesh started to waft through the air. “Damn bastards never had a chance.” Commenting more to himself than to those around him, Gary cast his eyes around for any danger._

_“Well that looks like that is that! A.J., Lily and the others should be up soon if this is the best that Rocket could offer.” Not realizing how wrong he was, Gary relaxed slightly…and just a little too soon._

_The ground around them started to rumble and the other trainers started to back away warily. Of course being the confident trainer he was, Gary stood his ground awaiting for whatever would come next._

_A sigh of relief passed when he recognized A.J.’s Sandslash burrow out of the ground. For its size it managed to make a hole large enough for a human to pass through. A frown passed Gary’s face though when he saw how beat up the pokemon looked. There were obvious scorch marks and lacerations that covered it’s body._

_Whatever concerns he had though he pushed aside when he saw Lily pop up but the smile that was threatening to come across his face disappeared immediately. Her left arm was hanging by her side uselessly. Her pink hair was scorched in places and her outfit had various cuts in it._

_“Shit, Lily! What happened!” Gary pulled Lily out of the way of the various once prisoners that were surging from underground and running towards the forest in a surge. “Where the hell are the others?”_

_Shaking her head in frustration she felt tears pricking the corners of her eyes but she refused to let them fall. “Dead…A.J. died to keep it away from us. The others died in the initial fight. It is so strong. We have to get out of here now!” A hint of desperation entered her voice._

_Lily must have realized that Misty was not with her and surged back into the crowd to find the orange haired sister._

_This left Gary in a state of disbelief…A.J. killed? The guy may have been a bit of a dick but he wasn’t a slouch when it came to training pokemon. There shouldn’t have been anything down there that could have killed him. “Nidoking and Nidoqueen…prepare for anything. If anything that isn’t human comes out of that hole I want you to put a stop to it. Pinsir and Scizor you are support!” Turning his attention to the other trainers in the group, the unspoken leader of the group directed the remaining trainers to do the same._

_Lily dove through the crowd with Misty in tow. She managed to grasp Gary’s shoulder and squeezed it to get his attention. “Gary, like, we gotta go! We can’t survive this thing! It ripped Danny and Brendon to shreds.”_

_“Sorry Lils but if that thing is as strong as you say we are gonna need a rear guard to protect these people. I am gonna need your help if you have any pokemon left.”_

_Nodding hesitantly, Lily lifted the flap of her vest up to reveal all 6 of her pokeballs still hooked to the belt looping around her shorts. “Like after we broke everyone out A.J. took rear guard but he was getting pretty beat up before I pulled out.”_

_Nodding a little Gary turned his attention to Misty. The girl looked a mess, her one eye was now completely white and she had a series of fresh lacerations across her face. “Get going Misty. Your sister and I will handle this.”_

_Misty looked like she was about to protest but Lily leveled her sister with a glare. “Like Gary is right Misty, get out of here we will handle this. You have done enough, your only job now is to survive.”_

_Gary would have said more on the subject but suddenly the ground surged beneath them. Screams rent the air as the hole that had been made by A.J.’s Sandslash closed up, swallowing anyone who had not made it out yet._

_The roiling ground surged up and formed into a giant rock like golem. Regirock had arrived and it didn’t even assess the situation. Its heavy hammer arm immediately crushed an unfortunate Claydol. The small rock pokemon didn’t even have time to utter a protest before it met its end._

_“OH fucking shit! What the fuck was Rocket doing down there?” Gary growled as he started to move away from the giant rock pokemon. The two girls were behind him._

_“Nidoking put that drill to good use! Horn drill that hunk of rock apart. Nidoqueen mega punch!”_

_Nidoking charged the giant rock pokemon with its drill on maximum power. It bit into the flank of the rock pokemon but if it noticed, it had no reaction to the chunks of rock pouring off the drill attack._

_Without flinching the rock golem brought both of its hammer arms down on Nidoking. Gary watched helplessly as one of his most powerful pokemon’s back was broken in one swift attack. Nidoking squealed in pain before life left his eyes not a moment later when Regirock brought both arms down on the downed pokemon for a second time._

_“Fuck! You bastard!” Not needing any provocation at the loss of her mate, Nidoqueen charged with reckless abandon, her fingers tearing into the giant golem._

_Regirock did not make a sound as it systematically started to kill the remaining trainers. Gary could only watch in complete shock as Regirock completely tore his team apart. The only reason Aerodactyl was still alive was that Regirock couldn’t reach him._

_The giant golem had just finished smashing Pinsir like the big it was against the unmoving body of Nidoqueen. Her spikes were driven into Pinsir, spearing the pokemon and breaking his hard shell. The green innards of the bug pokemon leaked out as it moaned pitifully._

_He was briefly aware of Lily shaking him and registering the panic in her voice. “Gary we like gotta go now!” He let himself be led away from the carnage in front of him by his girlfriend._

_The ex-prisoners in front of them were starting to slow down, most tired out as the adrenaline left their bodies. They had to push onward because they could see Gary’s Aerodactyl above was getting closer and closer to them. The giant fossil pokemon was trying to harry the golem and slow its movement but it was unfortunately having little effect._

_They had been running for the past three miles and the giant rock golem showed no signs of tiring out._

_Lily turned to Gary and shot him a resigned smile. “Like…I am gonna go back and try to buy us some time.”_

_Looking visibly shaken by her words, Misty immediately grabbed her sister’s arm. “No! You can’t go back there! We can make it out! You said the League knew about the base they have to be here soon!”_

_The older sister just shook her head a sad smile on her lips. “Like Misty…we can’t count on a white knight. The only thing I can do is buy you guys some time. Even if it only gives you another five minutes it will be worth it.”_

_“I’ll go Lils! Give me your pokemon!” The young Oak held out his hand and leveled his best authoritative gaze at his girlfriend._

_Lily leaned up and kissed Gary on the lips. Tears were streaming down her eyes as she drew back. A shuddering sigh left her body. “Like…no Gary you gotta make sure Misty gets out of here. Promise me if it catches you, you take Aerodactyl and take Misty with you. The damned stone bird will only listen to you.”_

_Shaking his head in frustration he tried to deny her logic. ‘Damnit if only I had taken someone else for my air support.’ There was nothing else he could do…nothing his remaining team was dead. Aerodactyl was all but useless. He took his remaining pokeball and pushed it into Lily’s hand. “I…I love you babe, take Rhydon…he will…”_

_The pink haired girl shot a resigned smile to her boyfriend, knowing exactly what he meant, the pokemon would probably buy her another minute or two of life. She tilted her face towards Gary and smashed her lips against him in a passionate kiss. Fully aware this may be the last time she would see him alive._

_A moment later she pulled out of the embrace and smiled at Misty. The youngest of the sensational sisters currently seemed to be in denial. Shaking her head back and forth she only stopped when Lily brought her into a crushing hug. The only thing that broke it apart was the roar of Regirock that signaled it was closing in on their position. Any prisoner that could was already starting to run._

_“Misty…like I will never regret this…send Daisy and Violet my love hm ki and don’t forget…even though you are the runt I totally love you as well!” Shooting a smile towards the pair she broke away and ran towards Regirock before either could come to their senses and stop her._

_“Shit…” Gary muttered more to himself than to anyone else. Misty stared after her sister hoping to see her one last time._

_The sounds of fighting grew again in the distance. Gary was hesitant to move and felt his feet planted to the ground. Misty was tugging at his shoulder but there was nothing in the world that could get him to move at the moment. Straining to hear anything all he could hear was silence in the distance…silence._

_Gary’s eyebrows widened in realization as he felt tears start to gather in the corners of his eyes. The heavy footfalls of Regirock created mini tremors in the ground. Coming over the hill the giant golem appeared slick in blood, none of it, its own. Roaring in challenge the living being of rock threw the lifeless body of Lily towards the two remaining humans._

_Her head was caved in, the only remaining features that Gary could identify was her hair. The first sensation he felt was the jagged ground beneath him, his knees had given out under him but he couldn’t even bring himself to acknowledge it. Gary knew that he should get Misty out of here but he found himself frozen to the ground. He couldn’t bring his eyes off the crumbled body of Lily. Briefly registering Misty’s scream as Regirock closed in on them he felt maybe just maybe it was easier this way. What was the point? How could he have let Lily go out there, the girl wasn’t a slouch at training but she wasn’t at his level. Whereas his pokemon could operate with a certain level of independence much like Ash’s could. Lily’s pokemon just had not had the kind of rough and tumble experience that he and Ash’s pokemon had, the gym leader’s pokemon required constant input to keep them on target. Without a trainer they fell apart. If his pokemon hadn’t died…he could have been rear guard._

_“It should have been me!” Raging at the injustice of it all, Gary found himself slamming the ground with his curled up fists. Regirock roared in response and lumbered towards the distraught trainer and the scarred girl that was rocking herself back and forth next to the brunette trainer._

_“Salamence! Air drop!”_

_“Wha?” Half formed thoughts managed to form in his head but they disappeared into further confusion as a giant pokemon landed in front of him. The heavy creature roared a challenge as it stood up from the giant crater it had created with its landing. The metal on the giant dinosaur like pokemon glittered in the sunlight as the giant pokemon shifted. Standing atop the metal rock monstrosity that was Aggron was none other than Ash Ketchum._

_Crazy, that was what that son of a bitch was. Only Ash would ride on the shoulder of an Aggron that was being air dropped from a Salamence. Blinking in disbelief he felt his jaw drop when Ash turned towards him and shot him a thumbs up. “Hey Gary I heard from Violet and Daisy that you could use some help.”_

_“Woah!” Crying out in surprise Ash just barely managed to hold onto his ride for lack of a better term. Turning his attention to the matter at hand he realized that Regirock had apparently been none too impressed by his entrance. The rock pokemon had used it’s hammer arms to strike Aggron but it seemed to only annoy the iron armor pokemon._

_An excited glint came to Ash’s eyes, it was to every day you got to taken down a legendary creature that he had only seen in books while studying for his Ranger exam. “Alright Aggron! Rip it to shreds with your metal claw attack.”_

_Despite his confidence in his pokemon, Ash realized that staying on Aggron would be a hindrance at this point. Jumping down from his pokemon, Ash turned his attention to Gary and quickly assessed the area. His happy smile turned to a frown when he took stock of the crushed in body of a young pink haired girl lying on the ground nearby and Gary’s unseeing eyes._

_Gary was left to just stare as Ash so casually left his pokemon to rip Regirock to shreds. ‘Is this what it is to be a Ranger?’ He questioned as he felt Ash pick him up off the ground but did not bother to acknowledge it with any outward sign. ‘He is not even paying attention…it is like he just knows Aggron is going to win.’_

_Watching the battle it was certainly the case. Regirock attempted to bring one of its hammer arms down on Aggron only for the iron hide pokemon to rip right through the entire arm at the shoulder joint with its metal claws. Regirock for being an emotionless golem seemed surprised by the sudden disappearance of its right arm._

_Turning back to watch the battle once more, Ash took a moment to assess the situation before deciding to finish this off for good. “Take it down with heavy slam Aggron.”_

_The giant iron pokemon roared before throwing itself into Regirock in a vicious slam attack. Despite Regirock being classified as a heavier pokemon, there were few pokemon heavier than the armored giant that was Aggron. The heavy slam turned the Regirock to piles of rock._

Kanto Ocean – enroute to Hoenn

Gary shook himself out of his dark thoughts. It had taken years but he had mostly…key word mostly moved past most of the guilt. Meeting with Misty again…well that stirred up old memories and he knew he couldn’t afford to be distracted, not with what was on the line.

“Come on Pidgeot lets pick up the pace. Ashy boy needs all the help he can get and it wouldn’t hurt to pick up May along the way to keep him grounded.” A smirk crossed his face as he flew towards Hoenn.

 

 

A/N: I swear…I really swear we will get to May next time. I promise on my computers, my cats, and my cars. This was originally supposed to be just a simple little battle between Gary and the surprise figure of Misty. Of course as per usual I have to create a god damn good reason why Misty is attacking Gary…which of course begets the actual origin story which of course turns the whole chapter into a flash back for half of it. I am half debating just writing a prequel after this about the Rocket Wars I have half created in the amount of flash backs I have done. I was originally also going to make a sequel of the succession wars in Kanto but the way it is going I am probably just going to turn the whole thing into one giant overarching story that you people will surely kill me for. Read now and get two wars with a romantic/tragedy subplot for the price of one. Anyway I semi-take back my request for a beta. I think I would just end up driving them insane, if not with my terrible grammar my inability to stick to what I was planning on writing. Anyway enough of my ramblings, this is probably the last update until October or November, and then of course that could be a lie as well!


	12. Route 105 - Torrent

Route 105 – Torrent

 

A/N: So if you have any feelings on where this story goes romantically with Ash you may want to take a look at the poll on my page. I am up in the air on what to do with Ash. I found myself having a hard time writing May and Ash romantically. I don’t know if I can really do the pairing justice. I have found Cynthia much easier to write with Ash so if I end up making a romantic type pairing that may be the direction I head. I will take your thoughts into consideration but in the end it will be what I deem is best for the story line. Anyway some May and Drew potential set up this chapter along with some scenes with Ash and co.

 

Rustboro City – Beach side

“Stupid Ash, stupid Brock, and stupid everything!” Yelling made her feel better not that it really helped the situation. Instead of traveling with Ash and Brock she had been completely abandoned by the Ranger and his traveling companion in the city, not that she did not deserve it on some level but she had no real idea what to do now.

Wandering around the city really had done nothing for her mood. The day before May had already told her younger brother off when he tried to help…well if you could call bluntly asking how she fucked up. Now that Max left she was really all alone, she didn’t want to bother the Stone siblings with what was essentially her failing.

So she found herself down by the beach a little ways away from the port. Just to keep people from bothering her or more likely to look less pathetic in her current state she had set up her fishing pole and cast the line out into the ocean. Really though she just found herself staring off into the ocean.

An unexpected voice broke her self-imposed solitude. “May? Is that you?”

Turning to look up towards the top of the dune she spotted the green haired Hoenn Ranger. A look of surprise coming over his face at running into May and May’s face had a similar state of surprise. Meeting Drew in the middle of Rustboro City’s small beach area was just as unexpected. “Oh hey Drew…what are you doing here?”

Turning back to face the ocean, May did not really wait for an answer, instead she opted for staring out at the ocean again.

“I was just passing through really. The League I guess has gotten concerned over some kidnappings and missing persons reports so they have a lot of us roaming the country side looking for clues. I came out here to investigate a heavily damaged cruise ship. The Captain swears that they were attacked by assassins if you can believe that.” Chuckling a little at the unbelievable story he had been fed he ran his hand through his thick green locks.

“Well it must be interesting being a Ranger.” A noncommittal answer was given in a tone that really did not hide her disinterest with the whole topic. Just to give herself something to do, May found herself playing with the fishing line and hoping that Drew would take the hint and leave her alone.

Sighing in a little bit of frustration, Drew decided to ask what he really wanted to ask because he had a feeling that it was what had May down currently. “Where is Ash, May?”

In response May just shrugged her shoulders a little.

“Come on May! I knew that jackass would fuck up! Now what did he do?” Anger crept into his voice when he thought about the jackass. Drew knew just from meeting him that he would hurt his May and now as always it was up to him to fix her up.

Realizing that Drew was not going away until she finally talked to him, May finally gave up her silent vigil and turned to the green haired Ranger. “He left. Said it was no longer safe to come with him and that I should just go home.”

Hearing the despondent tone in her voice, Drew gently punched her in the shoulder and offered her an encouraging smile. “Come on May it isn’t that bad. I mean I miss Petalburg City and I am sure your parents will be happy to see you.”

A look of anger crossed her face upon hearing Drew’s declaration. “That isn’t the point Drew. I went with Ash to get away from my dad. He wants to protect me but instead he turned Petalburg City into a prison!” Tears started to find their way down her face unknowing to the young brunette. “I want to explore and see the country and be free but my dad wants to keep me pent in where he deems it safe! I don’t want to go back Drew I can’t go back not yet not until I prove to him that I can take care of myself!”

Her ramblings turned into deep and uncontrollable sobs. Drew was monetarily surprised when May suddenly threw her arms around him and pressed her face into his chest.

Awkwardly at first Drew wrapped his hands around May’s body and tried to sooth her with an old lullaby his mother used to sing to him when he younger.

“You know May…I can always come with you. I mean we may have to take some detours depending where I have to respond to but I wouldn’t want anyone else at my back. I know your pokemon are powerful and you can handle yourself.” The offer came out before he even realized what he was saying. To save face and maintain his normally cocky attitude though he followed up his offer with his normal arrogant tone. “Of course as you know I can handle anything that comes at me but you could help here or there.” The arrogant tone was lessened by the conspiring wink he sent to May.

Despite the fact that her eyes were puffy and red from the tears Drew still found himself attracted to May. “You’ll be safe with me May and I promise I won’t leave you unlike some people.”

“Thanks Drew.” Shooting the green haired young man a watery smile when she finally pulled herself away from Drew completely, May found herself playing with her fishing rod again. “I guess I just thought you know the whole white knight thing. It was like a fairy tale. He saved me, took me away from the evil old witch.” At this May snorted in amusement imaging her dad in a witch’s costume. “I thought it was a happily ever after.”

A moment of silence passed between the two. Tentatively Drew reached out and drew May back into a one armed hug. “I know May…he was perfect…even I could see it probably too perfect. He is the type of guy that wants to save the world. He fits the image but in practice he is going to do what he needs to do to save the world and not the girl.”

“I know Drew!…I know…sorry I just I built him up in my mind and maybe it is because I pressed him too hard. I guess underneath it all he has his issues and maybe I can’t fix them. I just thought that if I stuck with him it would all end up alright in the end.”

“A noble idea May…really it is and I wish it would have worked out for you I do but ya gotta face facts.”

“I know…” Sighing a little before continuing on with her line of thought and hoping that Drew would be amenable to the idea, May’s voice became slightly nervous.  “I think I want to go to Dewford Town. That is where Ash was planning to go last time I spoke with him. I just want to say good bye to him properly and apologize for my words.”

Drew was not exactly happy with the idea but it wasn’t like he could exactly say no after offering to go with her. “Sure May, it should be a fairly short trip. We will travel in style befitting of my prestigious position.”

“As always you go and ruin a sentimental moment by acting like a douche.” Never the less a giggle escaped from May as she playfully slapped Drew on the shoulder. Just when May was going to continue on her train of thought she felt a pull on her fishing rod. Immediately she leapt to her feet and pulled the rod up. “Alright I got a bite!”

Feeling another jerk on the line she started to pull the line in. A look of concentration was on her face as she felt whatever it was trying to get away. With one final jerk she finally felt whatever it was come out of the water. For a moment the shape blocked out the sun. “Alright here we go!”

The object that landed on the beach though was most decidedly not a pokemon. Instead it looked like a half drowned human. Actually it was a half drowned human. “Ah! I pulled a dead person from the sea!” May screamed in distress.

The “dead” body suddenly came to life coughing out some water before weakly raising her face towards the source of the scream she had heard. “Help me.”

“Shit!” Gasping in surprise from the suddenly dead body coming back to life, Drew threw out two of his pokeballs. A moment later his signature Roserade appeared along with Butterfree. Turning to address his two pokemon he attempted to convey the urgency of the situation. “Butterfree I need you to get to the nearest hospital and bring back help!” Butterfree acknowledged his trainer before taking to wing and disappearing over the dunes.

“Roserade I need you to use sunny day and then use aromatherapy to try and help her out.” Roserade acknowledged its trainer and a moment later the let loose a sweet scent into the air. It unfortunately could not heal the wounded woman but it would grant her some comfort.

Running over to the downed woman, Drew dropped to his knees and immediately put his first responder training to use that every Hoenn Ranger was given since they rarely were by a major metropolitan area with a fully staff hospital.

“M’am can you hear me. I am going to check you over and see if I can find any issues.”

“I need…I need to get to Ash. The woman is going to kill him.” The black haired woman muttered just loud enough that both May and Drew could hear her. The two exchanged glances but realized now was not the time to press her further.

“Alright we will warn him but first we have to take care of you.”

Not receiving any further response from the wounded woman, Drew started a once over and found a large wound on her thigh. Thankfully he didn’t have to do anything further because the paramedics had arrived.

Less than five minutes later the ambulance was on its way to the hospital with Drew and May onboard.

Route 104 – Unknown location –

Everything was spinning and he wanted to get off this god damn ride. That was the first that entered Ash’s head. Opening his eyes was a chore in itself with how his stomach felt. It was like he had been tossed around in a hurricane.

“Oh right…I was…” Muttering to himself over the current situation. The last thing he remembered was the storm coming in faster than expected. He had gotten below deck per the captain’s orders but if he thought he was sea sick before the storm, after he ended up passing out from the motion sickness.

Rubbing his head in displeasure from the oncoming headache he managed to perch himself against the nearest wall his hand had found. Dragging himself back he laid his head against the cool metal wall. ‘Wait a second cool metal wall…that doesn’t seem right.’

“What fresh new hell is this?” Upon opening his eyes fully and adjusting to the new light he found himself in a cell or to be correct the brig. On either side and behind him he was met with solid steel. A small toilet and sink was available with an attached curtain for privacy…classy really classy.

Finally staring right at him from across the corridor was a young woman sitting Indian style in a similar cell to the one he was inhabiting.

“Umm hello?” Ash asked awkwardly while staring at the younger woman in the other cell. From what he could tell she appeared to be in her early twenties with ridiculously long blonde hair with some odd hair clips on either side of her face. Something about her appearance was familiar but he could not really place it.

The blond woman was about to answer when a gruff voice cut her off from the adjacent cell. “We happen to be on a Team Aqua battleship and are currently in the brig…in case that wasn’t obvious Ash. I see you also still can’t travel by sea so I will graciously excuse your stupidity this time.” A lavender haired man came to stand by the bars so that he could see Ash for himself. A rare smirk coming to Paul’s face after he gave Ash a once over to confirm it was in fact who he thought It was by the voice.

“Paul what the hell are you doing here? And team Aqua? How did you get captured? Are Brock and Lucy still here?” The questions were rolling off of Ash’s tongue at a mile a minute. He could not see anyone else in the brig but with the stone walls on either side he could only see the cell in front of him and the cells adjacent to his cell.

“Would you shut the fuck up…I forgot about your incessant need to fill up every silent moment with constant chatter.”

“Oh and you are one to talk!” Unfortunately Ash’s automatic response to Paul was just that…completely automatic. Ash clammed up when he realized just how little Paul actually did talk. The man was pretty much a stone.

Seizing on Ash’s pause Paul just laughed bitterly before interjecting. “Can’t come up with a thing eh Ketchum? No surprise there. Well I am feeling charitable.”

A sigh of annoyance came from the blond haired woman, she had decided to interject not realizing that her traveling companion knew the latest prisoner that Team Aqua had taken. “Paul please stop harassing a potential ally.” Leveling her voice in the sternest tone she could produce, she waited until she received a grunt of acknowledgement from Paul’s cell before turning her attention to the young man across from her. Much like Ash, she thought there was something familiar about the young man but she just couldn’t place it.

“Well Ash? My name is Cynthia and it appears you have met Paul already.” Awaiting a nod of Ash’s head, Cynthia decided it was opening enough to continue before Paul decided to continue the verbal spare that Ash was clearly losing. “There is a spiky haired man to your right and a long haired woman to your left but they both appear to still be knocked out. Paul and I were picked up after the storm blew through. Our boat was disabled and unfortunately neither of us was in a condition to fight.”

A snort came from Paul. “Weak little fucks couldn’t have handled us if we were at full strength. Then again they would have been massacred if Ash had fought them.”

“Massacred?” Tilting her head in confusion before a frown appeared across her face. She set to studying the young man once again but could not see what was so special about him. “Paul not to belittle him but I know he isn’t an elite four member or a champion of any region I know of.”

“Er…” Muttering uncomfortably at the sudden attention, Ash just scratched the back of his head and laughed a little. “Well Paul I don’t know about a massacre…maybe hold my own.”

Snorting in derision, Paul just rolled his eyes before staring at Ash’s awkward attempts to divert the attention away from his rather unique abilities. “Sure Ash, sure did you already forget about Cinnabar? “

“Shut the fuck up Paul! You weren’t even there!”

“Oh I am sorry I didn’t realize I needed permission to use facts and history in this fight. My apologizes, I forgot you sorely are lacking in that department.”

Growling in anger Ash pushed himself up against the cell bars reaching his hands out through the bars towards Paul’s cell. “Say that to my face! I dare you!”

An inquisitive crossed Paul’s face. The purple haired trainer just stared at his once rival. “Really? Did you really just say that? I am right here Ketchum. Remind me again how you managed to beat anyone in a battle? You have got the emotional maturity of a five year old girl that didn’t get the pony for Christmas she wanted.”

Realizing that he looked foolish, Ash drew himself back from the cell door and petulantly crossed his arms glaring at Paul. “Beat you didn’t I?”

Cynthia noted the awkward pause in the conversation and hastened to fill it. She could tell that Paul was not keen on letting whatever the issue was go and Ash was not exactly the most willing to divulge, whatever it was it had Paul speaking at length he normally wouldn’t bother with. “Well regardless how Aqua captured us we have to think up a way out of here. It appears that they have removed our pokemon so our first step after leaving this cell is finding our pokemon. Ash you happen to have anything useful on you? I don’t think they searched you very thoroughly.”

Sighing in visible relief, Ash clung to the conversation that Cynthia started. Despite the fact that Paul and Ash had developed a good working relationship during their past work it did not mean that the two did not work to antagonize each other. “Well I don’t think…” 

Paul and Cynthia just watched as Ash proceeded to pull random crap out from his vest. It appears as though Team Aqua really had not taken much time to search Ash over other than to take his pokemon.

“All of that junk and nothing useful…why am I not surprised. Matches the inside of your head perfectly.” Snorting in disbelief over the amount of shit that the Ranger had pulled out without finding a single useful thing, Paul gave up any hope on Ash being useful at the moment.

Growling in annoyance Ash responded by flipping Paul off before squatting down over his pile of junk. Hoping against hope that perhaps there was something he had missed he swirled his finger around the pile of junk. Unfortunately Ash’s hope was dwindling…A few broken pieces of thread, a wet book of matches, an empty pokeball, a half broken Swiss army knife, and of course a half-eaten sandwich that appeared to have seen better days.

“Er…I guess I don’t carry as much useful stuff as I thought. Usually Brock kinda takes care of the umm planning and the supplies…and pretty much everything we need.”

Offering an encouraging smile to Ash she took a moment to look over at the brown haired man that must be Brock. “Don’t worry about it Ash, Paul and I did not have anything useful either. It looks like your friend is still out, we will have to wait.”

“Yeah…I guess.” Ash moved the junk around with his finger a moment longer before pushing it into the corner of the cell and letting himself fall into a sitting position.

The two studied each other for a few minutes in silence. Paul had gone off to the far corner of the cell, tired of dealing with Ash for the moment or more likely just wanting to get some shut eye.

After a few minutes it was surprisingly Cynthia who broke the silence and not Ash being as Ash just as Paul stated, almost always felt the need to fill dead space with rambling. “So where were you going before you were waylaid by the storm?”

Pausing a moment in debate over whether to share his true mission or not, Ash decided to play it safe and continue to use his cover story. Who knows how much from the incident in the Petalburg woods had gotten out to their central command so why take the risk?

“Well I am a trainer from Kanto. With the league still recovering from the Rocket war I thought it would be an easy journey to get into the Hoenn league. Of course I didn’t realize they were having their own issues.” Laughing a little, Ash just scratched the back of his head nervously. “So to make a long story short I am on my way to Dewford town for my next badge!”

“Oh I see, are the other two from Kanto as well? Are they trainers as well?”

“Er…no actually…” Pausing a moment to try to think up a good reason they were along he really couldn’t think of anything. Realizing that his pause was heading towards awkward silence, Ash just spouted off the first thing that came to his mind. Ash of course being Ash did not lie well in the best of circumstances.  “Brock is an ex-gym leader who is traveling with me and Lucy…she uh…is Brock’s girlfriend!”

A snort of disbelief came from Paul’s cell but the purple haired man apparently decided that Ash was digging a fine hole all by himself.

“I find it odd that you would be traveling with an ex-gym leader and his “girlfriend”. I thought the whole point of being a trainer was going off on your own and proving your independence. Is this normal for the Kanto region?” If you did not know Cynthia very well you could only assume the smile was one of understanding and meant nothing more. Anyone that did know Cynthia knew she was innocently digging for information and putting the pieces together of what was said…or not said in this case. Unfortunately for Ash he both fell into the former of the categories and did not realize Cynthia’s interest in puzzles. Why else would she be so interested in history and archeological ruins? Why the challenge of a good puzzle of course.

Trying not to glare at Paul was probably one of the hardest things he had ever done. The jack ass really did not need to put in his two cents over everything. Still glaring at Paul’s cell he responded to Cynthia’s question in a slightly distracted tone. “Oh well, Brock found me interesting and decided to follow me. Lucy is following Brock because the man is a womanizer and I don’t think she trusts him on his own.”

Cynthia nodded along with Ash’s explanation and continued on with her friendly tone. “Very interesting. So then if you are a trainer as you say, how did you meet Paul? From my understanding he was only over in Kanto during the Rocket Wars…care to explain?”

A harsh laugh came from Paul’s cell. The purple haired trainer just found this too great. “As usual Ash you run your mouth without accounting for previous conversations. You still are a horrible liar…and don’t even try to lie to Cynthia. She isn’t exactly the normal clueless girls that seem to attach themselves to your hip.”

Clamming up in, indecision, Ash just stared at Cynthia with wide eyes. “Oh…er…I didn’t mean…sorry but ummm I kinda can’t…I got…umm.”

A small giggle was released from Cynthia’s mouth before she caught herself with an embarrassed smile spreading across her face. “I won’t press for details for now but…” She raised her finger and pointed it towards the flustered trainer. “As Paul said do not treat me like a clueless little girl, I am the Champion of Sinnoh and I will find out the truth one way or another!”

“Yes m’am!” Ash quickly replied. Really he was just happy that he had gotten off so light, he could only imagine the ways that Red or Lance would flay him alive if he managed to not only piss off but alienate another region’s champion.

The small talk continued for a while longer until Ash and Cynthia decided to get some sleep while they could. Paul had decided to sleep a long time ago. The overhead cell lights turned off sometime later. Brock and Lucy still remained unconscious but then again they had been awake during the Aqua attack and had been subdued with prejudice.

Sometime later Cynthia was awakened by voices in the hallway. She let her eyes open just a sliver but feigned sleep to see if she could pick up anything of importance from her captors. When they came into her field of vision her hopes fell. There were only two of them with a Yamask floating along behind them at a sedate pace.

“Looks like they are all sleepin tight as bugs in a rug.” The one commented as she looked around the different cells, satisfied by her non inspection of the prisoners.

“Yeah all cozy and comfy…” The male Aqua grunt said as he scratched his beard in thought. “Hey…how bout we have some fun with’um?

“Aw com’on Fred…it is so fucking childish.” The female grunt complained but it was a token resistance at best. “The boss said we can’t touch’um anyway.”

The one identified as Fred wagged his finger at the female Aqua grunt. “Uh uh…he said we ain’t allowed to touch’um Shin-ho’uns. He never said nuthin bout these three’uns from the boat.”

There was a pause obviously the woman seemed to be thinking the proposal over.

“Com’on Wendy dun’t be such a proud.”

“It’s prude ya dumbass and I am not. Certainly fuck’in you enough.”

A lecherous chuckle came forth from Fred. “Certainly not enough if I gotta think up my own fun.”

Sighing in annoyance and defeat Wendy finally acquiesced to Fred’s demands. “Fine…fine ya jerk off but only one and we gotta make it super quick. If the boss catches us in this you know what he’ll do.”

“No worries sweetheart no one’ll ever know.”

There seemed to be a pause to Cynthia as she lay there in silence unsure what to do or what she could do to prevent whatever they were going to do. Sadly she realized there was little she could do and could only hope that it wouldn’t be too bad.

“How bout that one, he looks like he’ll be a crier. Wearin some kinda damn jewelry on his gloves like a lil girl.” Fred pointed out his target and looked over to see if Wendy would give any input in this but she seemed nonplussed by the whole game.

“Fine if you dun’t care. Yamask how bout you cast’n nightmare on him. I wanna see him twitch and scream like a lil girl.”

Obliging its owner the small spirit pokemon floated over to the cell that contained Ash and cast its nightmare attack on the boy inside. The pokemon was initially surprised by the resistance it received from the target but soon pushed through. Attacking a human with nightmare tended to affect humans differently than pokemon.  It normally unlocked the target’s worst nightmares and fears with a human target.

There was little Cynthia could do at this point other than watched wide eyed as the young man she had just met today withered in pain as if he was being struck with a whip. Ash was crying out in pain and withering in pain as he screamed out incomprehensible things.

_Moments ago Ash had been sleeping comfortably but now suddenly he found himself at his old house in Pallet town watching a shade of himself go up to the door. Powerless to do anything but follow the memory as it replayed he suddenly realized the scene. “No…please not this.” Ash tried to resist and pull back but he could only follow unwillingly as his shade pulled the door open._

_“Mom I’m home! Tracey? Mr. Mime!” The shade of Ash called as he stepped through the door a smile on his face. He had been so excited when he had been promoted to Elite Ranger that day that he had practically run home to tell his mom. He was met with silence in the main hall way and decided not to ponder the oddity. “Any body home! Hellooooo?”_

_The shade of Ash meandered into the kitchen before coming to a dead stop, his eyes widening upon the sight in front of him. Giovanni sat at his kitchen table casually caressing his mother’s cheek. The mother of Ash had tears streaming down her face and was tied up with a line of duct tape across her mouth._

_Tracey lay dying on the floor with his face tilted towards the ceiling. Ash could already see the glassy look coming to his eyes and blood was still rising from the hole in his chest as his body feebly pumped blood in an attempt to keep him alive._

_The older man had a smile on his face like the cat that caught the canary. The tone in his voice was condescending and belittling. “I heard someone just got promoted to Elite Ranger. Well you know how surprised I was that you didn’t tell me personally? I decided I had to run over here as soon as possible to greet you. Your mother though was not willing to play hostess so I had to encourage her. Isn’t that right dear?”_

_Trailing his fingers down towards her breasts, Giovanni squeezed one painfully causing Delia to scream through the gag._

_“Get your hands off her you monster!” The shade of Ash screamed enraged at the man touching his mother. “I will fucking kill you!”_

_Laughing in delight at the reaction, Giovanni shot the boy an amused smile. “I see where you get your manners from. If your mother won’t play hostess to the leader of Team Rocket what hope does the seed have of being a good little boy and joining Team Rocket.”_

_“I will kill you for this!” Ash screamed in rage as the shade of Ash started to stalk towards Giovanni only to be stopped by the man suddenly producing a knife and running it gently across Delia’s cheek._

_“Ah ah ah.” Waving the knife towards Ash, Giovanni shook his head in mock surprise. “Such threats against a guest? I see I was perhaps wrong to come all this way to congratulate you if this is how you are going to react.”_

_“Just let her go this is between you and me!”_

_“Begging already Ash? How unbecoming of an Elite Ranger, I thought you were more resourceful than this.” The older man practically spat the title and motioned towards Tracey’s body. “Why even he attempted to surprise me. The little fool thought he could get the upper hand.” Laughing a robust laugh he took in the young man before him. A smile crossing his face as he brought the knife across Delia’s cheek again as Giovanni assessed Ash._

_Ash’s shade and Ash could only look on in dismay and horror. Both unable to do anything one for the fear of causing Giovanni to kill his mother the other because he knew what was to come next. Delia struggled against the man but he simply pulled her tighter to his frame._

_“If you had just been a little later…” Giovanni looked at Delia longingly before sighing in defeat over the situation. “Well Ash I must return to Rocket Headquarters.”_

_“Just let her go Giovanni I won’t even pursue!” Desperate to save his mother, Ash tried to reason with the crazy leader of Team Rocket or at least give him an opening so he could try to save her._

_“I know you won’t pursue me Ash.” Standing up he pulled Delia up to a standing position as well. “Before I go though I need to give you your present but remember this is a gift for both of us. You see I have been following you for a while now. You are good you are but you have so much potential. I think you just need that last little push to really propel you to become a challenge to me.”_

_“I thought Red was your rival?” The shade found himself stopping in confusion but of course Ash just found himself sinking to the floor unable to look away but fearing it at the same time._

_“Ah young Red…yes…” moving towards the back door in the kitchen pulling Delia along he paused a moment a thoughtful look coming across his face. “Though he is a worthy adversary he looks at the big picture. Grudge matches are nothing for that emotionless fuck. No you see I want to see how this plays out.”_

_Grasping the knife a little tighter he brought it to Delia’s neck causing Ash’s shade to come to a complete stop. “It will almost be like a story. You see the young up and coming hero.” Pointing the knife once again towards Ash, Giovanni paused a moment in dramatic effect. “That is you, in case you didn’t figure it out.” Once again the knife found its way to Delia’s throat. “Comes home to find the villain at his home because he had been so confident his home was safe. Instead he will learn that nothing is sacred and fall into a pit of despair. The only question is will the hero overcome and slay the villain or will he turn into the monster he is trying to kill in his pursuit of power. I hope you are strong Ash because I am about to change your life with my gift. You will never again feel the same way you did prior. From this moment on your entire life path is changed!” With a flourish Giovanni ended his speech by slashing the knife across Delia’s throat. After the initial cut he pushed the gurgling woman away and drove the knife into her back. Looking up he took in Ash’s horrified face in something only described as perverse pleasure._

_“I hope we meet again Ash I truly do I will be most disappointed if this story I am creating ends in a suicide.” Chuckling a little bit he glanced down at Delia’s dying body before making his way out of the back door. Giovanni was gone before Ash could even react._

_After coming out of his shock Ash’s shade was on his mother in a moment. The Elite Ranger was openly crying as he held his mother in his arms. Placing her head in his lap he managed to grab a towel and pressed it against the wound in her throat. His other hand ripped the tape from her mouth. He knew it was all for naught, her body was already losing too much blood._

_Delia looked up at her only son and though she could not say it her eyes said it all. She was proud of her son. Time passed slowly and Ash was unsure how long he held his mother in his arms. Eventually though her eyes finally closed for the final time and her breathing stopped completely. At first Ash didn’t even realize she had passed but he came to the realization that his mother, much like Tracey, was dead._

_Something had broken in Ash that day and it never recovered. This would haunt him for the remainder of his days. It truly showed him how powerless he could be if he was weak and trusting of others. After his mother’s death, Ash had become harder than ever before when dealing with any enemy combatant._

_Training was increased and it was finally Leaf that would bring him out of his depression. Not that it would fully contain the demon inside but it did stop him from the full frontal almost suicidal assaults on Rocket positions that he was known for after his mother’s death._

Cynthia had given up on feigning sleep and was watching in horror as Ash continued screaming in distress from the attack. It had been 15 minutes and they had showed no signs of letting up.

“Stop it can’t you see it is hurting him!” Screaming in both distress and rage over the treatment of her fellow prisoner, Cynthia had come to a standing position and shook the cell bars in an attempt to divert the Yamask’s attention from its attack.

“Jus hav’en some fun chicka. Jus be thankful that you aren the untouchable list with tha little purple haired tough guy.” A sick leering grin was shot back at her from the male grunt before he turned back to his fun.

The screams must have awoken Paul because the purple haired trainer put in his own two cents. “I would stop if I were you. This will not end well.”

“Wha da you know!” Jerking his thumb back towards the withering trainer, Fred just shook his head. “Ain’t nuthin bad happening hear.”

Right after he spoke two distinct cracks were heard. The cracking resounded throughout the entire brig. It was at this point that Wendy noticed that the two gems on the man’s gloves were cracking. “Hey Fred his lil jewelry is crack’in.”

“Too late.”

“What do you mean?” Turning towards Paul’s cell even though she couldn’t see him, Cynthia knew he was there and from his tone he both knew what was going on and he knew it was bad.

“You’ll see.” Answering in a cryptic tone, Paul allowed a small smile come to his face. “I would suggest you get to the back of your cell. I believe you will find this quite an explosive experience.”

Traveling together for so long, Cynthia knew that Paul rarely told her to do something without good reason and 95% of the time he turned out to be right. Not waiting for further badgering from Paul she immediately put herself to the back of her cell.

The inhibitor system finally lost the battle. The pain that Ash was feeling had awakened the aura within and though the suppressor system kept the aura from flaring up in most circumstances this was not most circumstances. With the inhibitor gems broken a visible red aura suddenly appeared around Ash. A moment later his eyes opened they were completely white as if he had passed out from the pain and his aura had taken over.

“What the shit!” Both of the Aqua grunts backed away from the man that suddenly appeared to awaken from Yamask’s attack. “No one is supposed to wake up during nightmare...”

Cracking his neck from the cramping he had endured during his nightmare the white eyed aura user slowly turned towards his tormentors and the pokemon that had induced his pain. His eyes scanned over the two people and the pokemon for a moment, Ash immediately tagged them as a threat. The next thing he realized is that his pokemon were missing. “Where are they?”

“Wha-Wha-Where are who?” Far braver than her compatriot Wendy addressed the crazed looking man though her voice betrayed her sudden feeling that the situation was no longer in their favor.

“My pokemon…”

“Dunno the armory? We dun’t know nuthin I swear.”

“Pity.” Leveling his arm at the three he spread his fingers and a moment later three lances of aura blasted right through the cell bars and pierced the hearts of the two Aqua members and the Yamask. A dispassionate look crossed his face for a moment before a complete 180 occurred. A look of inexplicable glee started to cross Ash’s face. The forgotten feelings of job from ending a life rose to the surface as he cast his eyes about looking for his next victim.

“Are you an enemy?” The question seemed innocent enough when he addressed Paul and Cynthia but if they were he would end their lives. Still it did not make sense that they were held captive like he was. Perhaps they were prisoners as well? Trying to remember or reason with himself did not seem helpful as anytime he came close to a thought the joy of killing something suddenly replaced it.

“No Ash, we are trapped in here like you. The ones that killed Leaf though have held us all captive. Cynthia and I were trying to help save her.” The lie rolled off Paul’s tongue with ease. Having experienced Ash in this state before he knew just how to manipulate Ash, Paul came closer to the bars and stared directly into Ash’s eyes. “You need to release us so we can help you.”

“They took Leaf…of course...I have to kill them.” Shaking his head trying to get the confusing thoughts out, he stepped to his cell door and with a swipe of his aura he rent the steel apart before stepping out into the hall. Crazed eyes surveyed Paul and Cynthia for a moment as if trying to judge their true intentions.

It seemed as though Ash decided that the two were trust worthy and a moment later he rent the bars of both of their cells open. After a look around he did the same to Brock and Lucy’s cells even though they appeared unconscious.

Paul and Cynthia stepped out of their cells. Although Paul appeared quite comfortable with having a sociopathic killer standing before him, Cynthia appeared to be quite the opposite but she tried to keep a poker face going. Never had she felt such primal fear ripple through her body nor did she ever think that the young man she just met would have this kind of rage or power.

“I’m going to go kill them and find Leaf. Please find my pokemon.” Waiting until he received a nod from Paul, Ash quickly headed out of the brig leaving the two Sinnoh residents alone together.

Moments after Ash left Cynthia turned towards Paul. “What the hell was that Paul? He just killed those people with…some kind of…I don’t know. It looked almost like my Lucario’s aura when she uses it in fights.”

“In a sense it was.” Pausing a moment, Paul made sure they were alone before turning back to Cynthia. “You remember Cinnabar and what happened during the Rocket wars last days?”

“Of course we were told that a bomb was set off by Team Rocket accidently and it ended up leveling one of the main residential areas on the island killing Giovanni and most of Team Rocket.”

“I don’t mean the tripe we were fed from the official report Sinnoh received. I mean what really happened.”

A frown crossed Cynthia’s face as she tried to remember some of the rumors she had heard. “Well I remember someone saying that it had been one man. A nightmare of a man that slaughtered everyone in his path both ally and foe alike with an unimaginable power. Surely though that isn’t the case…but wait…the red aura.” A look of concentration fell across Cynthia’s face as she tried to put everything together. Suddenly she felt sick and the look from Paul just confirmed her fears.

“They named him that day. The Burning Nightmare…a man so powerful and so insane that he will kill friend and foe without hesitation or regret. That was what I was hinting at earlier. He leveled the entire city center just to kill Giovanni. It took Lance, Blaine, myself, and a few other powerful trainers to subdue him from his killing spree. There is a rage in him that cannot be quelled. Blaine developed those inhibitors to keep the aura from controlling him.” Sighing in frustration for once showing some emotion since Cynthia knew him other than sarcasm. Paul ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t know what the fuck we are going to do. I hope he tires himself out killing the Aqua members on this ship because if not we are in trouble.”

The gravity of the situation finally hit home for Cynthia. She would have never imagined that the rumors that had made it to Sinnoh had been true. Anyone with half a brain could tell the official story had been doctored and she accepted that as par for the course, never having a reason to dig further. Cynthia had simply assumed that it had been a slaughter by the League and they had wanted to cover up their mass killing of Rockets without a trial, not that a single man had decimated men, women, and children in a psychotic rage.

“So what do we do now?”

“We get to the armory and get our pokemon.” Paul just stared at Cynthia before deciding to offer her a little bit of hope for their situation. “Brock will hopefully have a plan for this but for now we better get going.”

Both of the Sinnoh region trainers stumbled a bit as the ship suddenly lurched to the side. “What the hell was that?” Yelling over the sudden sound of what must have been a concentrated shot of a thunder attack or another high level lightning attack based on the concussive blast.

“Ash.” Stating a simple fact before turning towards the exit Ash had made into the hallway and out of the brig. Paul and Cynthia stepped over fallen bodies and dying Aqua grunts that Ash had left in his wake. Most disturbing for Cynthia was the pokemon that lay broken on the floor or smashed into the wall. Their life blood leaking out in one way or another. Never in all her time as Champion had she seen this kind of pure unadulterated destruction.

A/N: Well another chapter down. I am writing more than expected from a combination of procrastination in my job hunt, packing, and other things I should be doing along with being inspired by some ideas to flesh out the story further. So I guess a win for you people until I get in gear to start applying for jobs. Anyway next chapter is pretty much going to be a destruction derby on the ship. We will check in on the real Lucy and Gary should arrive near the end of next chapter. Once again vote on the poll if you want a say in the romantic aspect of this story. Other than that hope you are enjoying the ride. Read, Review, Favorite or whatever you feel like doing. Thanks again!


	13. Route 105 - Swift Swim

A/N: Well the poll for May vs. Cynthia was fairly even until apparently all the May supporters came out in droves. I am going to leave it up until I make a decision. If I do end up going Cynthia I have started a new story that will strictly be May and Ash. It is going to be more fluff than this story obviously. This is a longer chapter to make up for the fact I don’t think I will be able to post or write anything until November. My wife is moving ahead of me to Baltimore so I will be stuck in our old apartment for about 2 weeks or so sans internet and only a tablet. Needless to say I am in for about two weeks of boredom.

 

Route 105 – Swift Swim

 

Route 105 – Aqua Command Ship – Location unknown

 

Another large explosion rocked the ship, causing Aqua grunts across the ship to stagger or fall from the impact. The cause of all of this was Ash unleashing his aura without any real regard for what damage he was doing to the ship.

Slamming his shoulder into the metal wall with a reverberating clang, Ash felt a satisfying pop signifying that his shoulder was back into place. Ash took a moment to stretch and flex his arm to make sure it was back to full capacity. Taking a tentative step forward he was assaulted by a massive headache. Grunting in pain from the sudden onslaught one of his hands clasped his temple as if to ward away the pain, Ash found the move completely pointless.

Everything was starting to get fuzzy and confusing. Every time he grasped at a thought it would fade away like a dream once you woke up. “What the fuck is happening to me.” Growling out in frustration, Ash slammed his fist against the wall leaving a visible impact when he pulled his hand away. “I can’t fucking concentrate…nothing is making sense.”

Rage that was the only thing that was left and it was slowly taking over any rational thought. Ash was going to continue on this vein of thought but unfortunately Team Aqua decided to intrude on his mental anguish.

“There he is…holy fucking hell look like he did to Gamma Squad!”

Ash turned away from the wall he had been staring at to meet the members of Team Aqua with a blank expression. Taking a quick glance around, Ash suddenly realized what the one grunt had been commenting on. “Oh yeah…” One of the grunts had been sliced in half, another had been smashed into the wall so hard she was now a permanent fixture. The final squad member had his throat crushed in. Gamma Squad’s pokemon were in a similar mess with Ash standing off to one side of the small storage room he had been cutting through.   

“It isn’t one of our priority targets so everything is on the table.” One of the female grunts commented, though her face paled a little once she fully surveyed the scene. Raising her arm to her belt the grunt detached a pokeball before throwing it forth.

The two other grunts that were with her followed her lead and let loose their own pokemon.

“Go Vaporeon!”

“Rock and roll Corphish!”

“Sealeo go time!”

One of the male grunts was starting to feel a little more confident. They were after all Beta Squad and had higher level pokemon. No matter what this crazy glowing guys deal was he was going down for sure. “Give up now and we will make sure Matt doesn’t get to ya!”

“Matt?” Ash queried the younger grunt before a dark smile crossed his face. “I hope he is stronger than you.”  Already the rage was coming back full force like a wave the aura crushed any thoughts that Ash had prior.

A torrent of water gun and hydro pump attacks blasted through the air converging on their target.

Raising his arm up he let his aura build even faster before the red glow that was once contained to his body suddenly sprung up like a flame. A hiss was provided when the water attacks struck the aura user producing a cloud of steam.

“Where the fuck did he go!” The aqua grunts quickly put their backs to each other due to the steam obscuring their vision.

Ash took advantage of their temporary blindness. Using his aura to propel himself forward Ash reached out and grabbed the Vaporeon in both hands. The water pokemon struggled as he started to twist the pokemon in opposite directions.

“Poreon!” Screeching in pain the Vaporeon attempted to get away by using an iron tail attack on Ash’s head.

Grunting from the impact, Ash simply shook his head to stop the ringing. The fear in the coal eyes of the water type amused him so but its attempts to get away were even more amusing. “My enemies never live! Let me show you why they call me the Burning Nightmare!” Screaming in effort, Ash pumped more aura into his arms before a final twist finally broke Vaporeon’s back.

The steam was just clearing up for the Aqua grunts to see an incoming object. Two were taken off their feet by the rag doll body of the dead Vaporeon. Both fell to the ground screaming in surprise as they came face to face with the dead pokemon.

Realizing that she was the only one that had gotten out of the way the female grunt decided to take the initiative. “Sealeo take down!”

She could only watch in horror as the thing she could only describe as a monster simply grabbed her Sealeo’s head mid jump. The man almost seemed to be debating for a moment before simply crushing the pokemon’s head. Screaming in horror she found herself backing away from the sight of the blood and brain matter running down the man’s arm.

“So weak…” Ash mused as he pondered the dying pokemon for a moment. The struggle for life ended shortly after its head had been crushed in and the heart finally caught up with the brain, realizing there was no further point the heart gave out. Dropping the dead pokemon without a further thought he started in towards the Aqua members.

Right before he reached the three a sharp pain suddenly cut across his left arm. Hissing in pain, Ash glanced down to see the lobster like pokemon had his arm in a vicegrip attack. “I almost forgot about you…” Murmuring more to himself than to the pokemon, Ash grabbed the lobster pokemon with his other hand. Tilting his head he addressed the Aqua grunts that were just getting the dead Vaporeon off of them. “I am going to show you in detail why you should not depend on type advantages.”

Without further comment Ash shoved his hand right through Corphish’s shell and let his aura come off his hand in waves. The lobster pokemon started to screech as the water within its body became super-heated from the aura attack that Ash was pumping through it.

The smell of fresh cooked lobster permeated the room a few minutes later and Ash shook the dead Corphish off his arm. An amused smirk came to his face when the shell of the Corphish popped off at the seams revealing fully cooked muscle tissue beneath.

“Well now I think I will kill each of you like I killed your pokemon.” A sadistic grin slid over Ash’s face before he advanced on the Aqua team members.

The female grunt never had a chance to scream. In a rush he was upon her. Grabbing her head in both of his hands he channeled the aura into his fingers. The female grunt stared up at him in horror before he forcibly cracked her skull open. Brain matter and blood soaked Ash’s hands momentarily before spilling over his grip and started to run down what was left of her head and onto her hair.

Taking a moment to savor his kill he took a hit to the face from one of the remaining Aqua grunts.

“You’re a fucking monster!” The second grunt screamed before joining in the fight.

The two grunts had witnessed their companion’s death and were going to make sure to kill this psycho before he got them.

“Monster you say? I am your worst fucking nightmare come to this world.” Carelessly dancing away from the sloppy strike from the taller of the two, Ash let the dead female grunt fall to the ground. Blood started to pool around her body as it escaped out of the jagged holes that Ash’s fingers had left in her skull.

The stouter grunt had apparently remembered he was armed finally and brought his knife around in a glancing blow across Ash’s arm.

Hissing in pain from the sudden line of blood that appeared from where the jagged knife rent the skin apart, Ash whipped his foot up in a quick snap kick into the grunt’s face.

Letting his aura pulse he flicked his blood from his arm. Ash took advantage of the knife wielding grunt’s occupation with his bleeding mouth and let the aura pulse around his arm. A leering grin crossed his face before he blocked another blow from the taller grunt before shoving his hand into the man’s stomach.

Slick with blood from the man’s internal organs, Ash felt around inside the man’s body cavity ignoring the man’s screaming. “Now now…just have to…aha!” He had found the grunt’s heart, his large fingers caressing the beating organ for a moment.

“Wha…the fuck….” The taller grunt’s face had gone pale as he stared down at the arm going further into his chest. Seizing up when he felt a sudden tightness in his chest, he turned his eyes to the intruder and found an unforgiving smile on the man’s face.

A moment after their eyes met, Ash released his aura in a burning pulse, letting the aura over heat the man’s cells and cooking him from the inside out. An inhumane screech came out of the man’s mouth as he started to flail. The only thing holding him up was Ash’s arm that was currently deep in his chest. Blood continued to run out of the man’s body and down Ash’s arm in rivulets.

Once again Ash’s inattention and inability to focus on more than one thing at a time cost him. The impact of the knife into his back caused Ash to jolt forward with a grunt. Aura despite its power could only do so much and though it made him far more powerful and when activated would make blows less effective. Put enough power into anything and it would make an impact.

Staring down at the knife coming through the front of his chest, Ash looked down at it curiously as if he had never seen such a thing before casually turning around.

The grunt grinned through his bleeding face. A tooth or two were visibly missing and blood that had started to coagulated was caked onto his beard already.

“Gotcha you fucking bastard. No one messes with Team Aqua and fucking no one messes with Beta Squad.”

“So you did.” Staring at the grunt for a moment, Ash reached behind his back and pulled the knife out. The aura kept most of the blood in but it still left a gaping mess from the jagged knife. Both sides of his body had torn and ragged flesh exposed to the air from the knife wound.

“Good night.” Without waiting for the grunt to respond, Ash whipped the knife around from his back and threw it into the grunt’s throat. Taking a moment to watch the man gurgling blood while clutching his throat entertained Ash on some base level. Once the man had expired he calmly applied a hand to the wound on his chest and one hand to the wound on his back.

Turning the aura to flames he cauterized the wounds with a displeased grunt. The aura deadened the pain enough to avoid swooning from the pain but it still hurt like a son of a bitch.

Flicking the remaining blood that he could get off of his clothing before it could dry Ash glanced around one last time to make sure no remaining pokemon or humans clinging to life. Finding nothing left, Ash moved on with no real purpose other than the urge to go up.

 

Aqua Command Ship – Brig

Footsteps from the other captives finally seemed to fade away. Duplica gave it another minute or two before her eyes cracked open slightly. Satisfied with the lack of movement, she let her eyes open fully to take in her surroundings.

The first thing she noticed was that her bars were bent open enough for her to leave. ‘I’ll have to thank Ash for making my job for master so much easier!’ She thought with glee. It had been a rough month for the poor girl. Duplica had expected to finish her mission for Master in Petalburg Forest…unfortunately Brock was a rather grabby sleeper and from what she could infer from his actions he and Lucy were an item. Funny really since everything in his file mentioned that he was a horrible womanizer.

Taking the boat had been her next best chance at making an attempt to follow her Master’s plan but Brock had kept her busy in the bedroom they had shared during the trip. Now though it sounded like she had a chance.

Duplica stepped out of her cell and took a quick look around but found that only Brock was left in the brig along with the dismembered bodies of a couple of grunts and their pokemon. Taking a quick detour into Brock’s cell, Duplica placed a well-aimed kick to the man’s head. Giggling a little in glee, she finally managed to get away from the handsy man and complete her Master’s mission. ‘Though from the sounds of it when I woke up earlier those stupid grunts may have completed my mission for me. Just means I get to return to my Master faster!’

A genuine smile lit up Duplica’s face before she carefully schooled her features back to Lucy’s normally stern expression. For now she had a mission to complete and she had to catch up to Ash. Preferably alone but if they were truly on an Aqua vessel she could afford to break cover to finish the job if needed.

Hoping that the kick to the head would keep the ex-gym leader from interfering in her mission Duplica left the holding cell area. “Such a shame Master wants them both to be left alive it would have been so much easier just to take him out of the picture permanently.” Grumbling more to herself than to anyone else, an exasperated sigh follow Duplica’s proclamation, she would do anything for her Master but sometimes the restrictions he placed on her for the missions were just short of impossible to follow.

 It became a simple game of follow the dead bodies and she knew eventually it would lead to Ketchum.

 

Aqua Command Ship – Below Deck enroute to armory

“So what exactly are we going to do about Ash?” Cynthia inquired, huffing in annoyance as she spun herself out of the way from another attempted kick from the group of grunts that the Sinnoh natives had encountered.

Deflecting another blow from one of the grunts, Paul responded with a jab into the man’s throat. Watching in satisfaction as the man backed away clutching his throat and gasping, Paul took the time to respond to Cynthia’s question. “Simple, we hope to hell that Ash tires himself out. Unless you expect Lucian to show up we are probably fucked otherwise.”

Responding to another rush from the current grunt she was sparing with, once more Cynthia spun out of the way. This time she grabbed the grunts arm on the way by and spun him about and into the bulkhead. “Your optimism is truly inspiring.” Bringing her leg up, Cynthia brought her boot’s hell down into the grunt’s neck with brutal accuracy. 

“No point in getting your hopes up with wasted assurances.” Shaping his hand for a palm heel strike he quickly brought the heel of his palm into the nose of another grunt that had appeared upon hearing the commotion in the hallway. A sickening crunch reverberated through the hallway, Paul’s palm drove the cartilage on the man’s nose up and into the man’s brain.

Calmly stepping away from the man that he effectively killed, Paul noted the man had started to drool. It appeared the man would live if medical aid got to him but from the looks of it he would never be more than a vegetable.

Glancing over at Cynthia, Paul observed her taking on a fourth grunt that had surprised her. The man had gotten her in a bear hug and was currently trying to squeeze the air out of her with the impressive size difference. “Quit fucking around Cynthia and finish it. You are worse than troublesome.”

Cynthia felt a pressure building up in her head, it felt like her ears were going to pop and seeing Paul just standing there watching her struggle with indifference though not surprising did piss her off. Raising her foot up she quickly brought her boot down in a vicious stomp. The grip lessened but did not release so Cynthia brought her foot down again and again.

Finally the gripped lessened enough that it allowed Cynthia some room to maneuver. Dropping down an inch, Cynthia got enough momentum to bring her head up into the man’s jaw. The grunt dropped his grip in favor of gripping his throbbing jaw line. This allowed Cynthia to stumble away, the blow also giving her a headache.

Seeing that Paul was not going to move an inch to assist her, Cynthia forced herself to move through the pain. Turning just in time to see the man had recovered and was charging her, Cynthia managed to grab the man’s incoming arm and a fistful of his tacky black and white striped shirt before twisting and bringing the man up and over her hip. The carry through brought the man’s head slamming in to the bulkhead and completely out of the fight.

“Thanks Paul, glad I brought you along.” Cynthia could barely get the words out between her labored breathing from her most recent exertion.

“You are supposed to be a Champion, Cynthia, not a weakling that needs saving.”

“Normal people assist their traveling companions no matter what their credentials.” Cynthia bit back with an irate tone seeping into her voice.

“I don’t have time to save people that are too weak to save themselves.” Determining that Cynthia had, had enough time to recover, Paul pushed himself off the wall and started to walk away from the scene of the attack. “Come on Champion, sooner we get moving the sooner we get to our pokemon.”

“Your concern is noted.” Cynthia growled out before following Paul.

Luckily the two seemed to avoid running into any more team Aqua grunts for the time being. Based on the explosions above, the two assumed that most of the crew was attempting to intercept and contain Ash.

It became apparent that the ship they were on was huge. It must have been at least the size of a large cruise ship if not longer. They had been walking for some time and despite the number of stairs they had gone down, following the signs that pointed them towards the armory and storage center, the ship showed no signs of ending.

“I didn’t know these idiots had two pennies to rub together let alone building a ship this size.” Paul commented on their way down another set of stairs.

“It is suspicious.” Cynthia mused. “Last time I spoke with Stone, they were a minor band of troublemakers along with some other miscreants called Team Magma. They suddenly show up near the site we were going to dive in to look for ruins and after they capture us they start drilling us for information about what we know of Kyogre. Something bigger is going on here.”

“Obviously, after we get to the armory we need to find a computer uplink or one of the ship’s data centers.”

“Do you think you can get in?” Cynthia inquired as they moved quietly down another hall way moving closer and closer to the armory.

“I’ll have to, they will wipe all the data before the League could take over the ship if we call in for Ranger reinforcements and there is no guarantee Ash won’t sink the ship if they really rile him up.” Paul motioned for Cynthia to follow him down another hall, making sure that she kept close. The lower they got the quieter it seemed to get. It was most disconcerting. 

“Sink the ship?” Even though Paul had informed her that Ash had been the reason for Cinnabar she was still having trouble comprehending that amount of power.

“He did turn Cinnabar to ash.” Grimacing slightly at the unintended pun, Paul grumbled a little as he corrected himself. “No pun intended. I don’t really know the limit of his power and after seeing him in action I for one do not want to bet on him not being able to sink this ship regardless of size.”

She was going to respond and inquire further to the exact details of Cinnabar since it was obvious at this point that Lance had done an excellent job of covering up what had really occurred at Cinnabar, but they had finally reached the armory.

Paul leaned himself against the closed blast door and took a quick look in. From what he could see there was only one Aqua grunt on duty. Just their luck really that there weren’t more people down here, with Ash on the loose above deck, Paul had expected that they would be readying squads of grunts down here.  Motioning to Cynthia to hit the intercom, he indicated that only one grunt was inside.

Trusting that Paul had a plan for once they got in, Cynthia pressed the intercom button and hoped her terrible acting skills would gain them access to the armory.

“Level 50 Armory.” A curt voice acknowledged through the intercom.

“I need immediate access into the armory. Please open the blast doors.” Cynthia responded in a commanding tone to her voice.

“I.D. number to the scanner and clearance code.” The voice on the other side took on a put upon tone. “How many times do I have to tell you people? Protocol is to be followed at all times.”

Tapping her fingers against the intercom, Cynthia shared a glance with Paul before she decided to plow on. “I need access now be damned clearance or not!” As if to punctuate her point the ship rocked back and forth from another explosion above. “If not you can go tangle with the monster that is wreaking havoc topside on anyone up there.”

 There was a slight pause before the grunt decided that it was in his best interest to arm the people at his door from whatever caused the explosion above.

The moment the doors were up far enough, Paul quickly slide underneath the opening blast doors. A knife that he had relieved from the original owner flew true and right into the grunt’s left eye before the man had a chance to even comprehend what was occurring. All in the matter of twenty seconds the Aqua grunt was down and Paul was making his way towards the storage system for the pokeballs.

By the time Cynthia had made her way over to the storage bins, Paul already had his pokeballs reattached to his waist. It was just their luck that all of their pokeballs were in the same area of the storage system.

Paul was currently stuffing what must have been Ash, the female trainer, and Brock’s pokeballs into his cargo pockets on his pants when he noticed something odd. Holding up one of unmarked pokeballs that must have been the female trainer’s he frowned slightly when he noticed the blinking red light on the pokeball.

“Hey…what do you make of this?”

Looking up from attaching her pokeballs back onto her trainer belt, Cynthia glanced over the pokeball Paul was holding up. Pausing a moment Cynthia racked her brain for the possible reason and unfortunately came up with a few options.

“Either the pokemon is in critical condition, in stasis due to having too many pokemon on hand, or in rare instances it is due to the pokemon being stolen or unwilling to fight for its trainer.”

“So too many possibilities…” Taking a moment to rifle through his side cargo pocket, Paul pulled out two more pokeballs that were also blinking in sync with the first one he held up. “This change your answer?”

A frown caressed Cynthia’s beautiful face after seeing all three pokeballs blinking in sync. One pokeball may be an outlier, two may be an odd coincidence, but three left only one answer. “We will have to keep our eye on her but for now we need to find a database terminal or one of their database stations.”

A hesitant nod came from Paul before he performed one last sweep of the storage bin looking for any pokeballs he may have initially missed. Nothing else was jumping out at him so he assumed that it was clear. It was rather nice that most trainers tended to mark their pokeballs in some way. Brock’s obviously had a Boulder Badge symbol stuck to the top, Ash’s all had a Ranger symbol on them, and finally the female Trainer’s had the luck symbol attached. If he remembered correctly that was Lucy the Pike Queen’s symbol.

The pair quickly exited the armory and closed the door behind them…mostly through the use of Paul’s Ursaring pulling the door back down behind them and probably blowing most of the failsafe electrical systems in the process.

“So what exactly are we looking for? I don’t exactly fancy staying this far below deck any longer than I have to.” Paul commented as they searched the hallways they went down for any signs that would lead them to either a data center or a lab which would likely have terminal access.

“To be honest I don’t know.” Cynthia answered truthfully. 

“Great, I thought you were supposed to be a genius researcher.” Paul remarked snidely.

Bringing her hand down in a quick slap to the head, Cynthia continued to walk down the hall with a self-satisfied smirk. Paul was left behind to rub his head from the decisive blow.

“Even a top researcher needs some information to go off of. The only thing I have right now is a series of seemingly unrelated events. If I were a fool I would think it was just a case of their backer looking for ancient ruins.”

“No way are they just looking for ruins, this ship has enough trainers on board from the looks of that armory alone to rival a major city Ranger installation.” Paul responded.

“My thoughts exactly, they look like they are ready for a battle more than a dig expedition. Whatever they are doing they are expecting some type of resistance.”

They were just about to go further down another random hallway when Paul suddenly pulled her off into an adjacent hallway.

The only thing that stopped Cynthia from yelling at Paul was the fact he had found a lab. A computer terminal sat unattended on one of the lab desks.

“So what now?” Paul muttered as he inspected the area around the computer for any possible passwords written down that would provide them access.

Cynthia glanced around for a moment to make sure they were still clear before she pulled out a pokeball. With a quick release of her digital pokemon a Porygon suddenly appeared in midair.

“Porygon will get us into the system and from there I will take care of it. Paul watch the door while I gain access.”

Barely paying attention to Paul’s snide comment, Cynthia motioned for Porygon to float over to the computer terminal. “Alright Porygon I need you to hack into their system.”

“Gon Gon Gon!” The digital pokemon chirped happily before it interfaced itself with the computer. A moment later it’s eyes were replaced with streams of computer data.

Paul watched the digital pokemon attempt to hack into Team Aqua’s computer network with mild interest. “So where did you get a Porygon? Not exactly one of your signature pokemon.”

Cynthia tapped her foot impatiently while the digital pokemon went to work. “I asked Professor Rowan to borrow one. Basically I needed a mobile computer that could function underwater.”

Any further conversation was cut short by Porygon alerting the two that it had obtained access into the system with a quick chirp.

“Excellent work Porygon. I need you to stay on hand and download anything I deem important.” Nudging the data pokemon away from the keyboard a little, Cynthia took to the keyboard.

Paul could swear his eyes were spinning from how fast Cynthia was tearing through documents and pausing only now and again to request Porygon to download something.

“Shit!”

“What?” Paul was startled by the sudden exclamation from Cynthia.

Motioning Paul over she brought up the text document she had been looking at and highlighted the important part. “This is what Aqua is up to and why they were so interested in the ruins. Hell if Team Aqua is planning on following through with this the whole world including Sinnoh will be in danger.”

Paul’s eyes widened as he saw what Cynthia was talking about. Indeed if Team Aqua managed to succeed in their plans Sinnoh and the other regions would be in trouble. This would be worse than the Rocket Wars in Kanto, at least those had been mainly contained in the Kanto/Johto borders. “Fucking hell, we have to warn Steven not to mention alert the other regions that this is a serious threat.”

“Agreed. Porygon download everything you can find related to this file. I need it all. Clear out any space you need from my research.”

“Gon gon gon.” Porygon acknowledged Cynthia’s command as its eyes turned digital again.

 Paul and Cynthia both stumbled as a sudden tremor racked the ship sending the giant vessel side to side. Paul steadied himself using the door frame while Cynthia was left gripping the computer.

Red flashing lights came on overhead and a piercing klaxon started to sound throughout the ship. Paul covered one of his ears while holding himself steady with his other hand in case of another tremor. “Mew, Ash has really done it this time. I don’t know what the fuck is going on but you better get that Porygon to hurry up. I refuse to die due to Ash sinking the god damn ship.”

“Well what fun is life without a little risk?” Shooting a smirk at Paul who was clearly uncomfortable with the entire situation, Cynthia took the risk of falling she got herself in front of the terminal again and continued searching for further evidence. The flashing red lights in the back ground made it harder to read the screen but she had dealt with worse. “Besides we may never have another chance to get into their system like this.”

Paul returned to his silent vigil for any interlopers that may try to interfere with Cynthia’s data transfer. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck this far below deck with Ash clearly above wreaking havoc.

 

Aqua Command Ship – Bridge

“Last report intruder moving from section 103 into section 104. Team Gamma is no longer responding.” One of the bridge crew members called out.

“Move Team Alpha into position. I want him put down!” Matt was the Admin in command of the ship in Archie’s current absence.

“Alpha move to section 107, head off the intruder.” The bridge’s communication’s officer radioed over to the mobile response team.

Resting his head against his hand, Matt grumbled to himself, mostly he was pissed off that he could not go deal with the intruder himself. “Hehehe the problem with being Captain, Eh boys?”

A perfunctory round of “aye Sir!” came from the entire bridge crew, even if they did not know what their Captain was talking about it was best to just agree.

“Better not waste Alpha Team’s time…Mitch becomes such a little bitch about taking jobs below his team’s skill level.” Matt ordered before he giggled a little to himself. “Hehehe Mitch…a bitch. It rhymes so nicely I just want to say it twice. Mitch is a bitch!” Laughing out loud he barely paid attention to his crew members anxiously staring at their childish commander.  “Go ahead and send Beta in ahead of time. Those fuckers haven’t had a good rumble in a while. ”

“Alpha standby for engagement. Beta please move to section 107 and prepare to intercept. Gamma has gone dark repeat Gamma has gone dark.” Communications relayed Matt’s orders over to their onboard response teams.

“Sir we have multiple ships on radar.” The sensor officer moved out of the way for Matt to see the multiple little blips coming in from all directions and converging on their ship.

Leaning forward, Matt glanced at the radar with a frown. “Get me eyes on the incoming ships! Scouts in the air!”

“Attention aircore attention aircore prepare to launch!” Once more the communications officer was on the radio directing the ship’s personnel to follow Matt’s will.

Not a moment later a large Gyarados with a young lad on his back lifted off of the deck follow by a small squadron of Fearow and Swellow each with a trainer on their backs as well.

Matt watched impatiently as the scouts disappeared out of visual range. Needing something to do other than sit around and stare at nothing, Matt found himself up and walking over to the bridge’s main window. Not that he could see his scouts but he was desperately hoping to see his scout’s progress regardless of their distance from visual ranger.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on one’s perspective it came from, Matt did not have to wait long. For a moment later a small squadron of Pidgeot’s screamed across the bow of the ship. The Pidgeot disappeared as quickly as they came but they left behind a vanguard of Magma soldiers parachuting out of the sky.

“Fuck!” Matt growled in annoyance. “Of course it would be Team Magma. Those little shits don’t seem to understand that you don’t mess with Team Aqua in their element.”

Practically screaming at his bridge crew, Matt needlessly pointed to the Magma members currently landing across the deck of the ship. “Sound the klaxon, we are being boarded!”

“Clearly.” One of the bridge crew muttered to another.

Matt turned to try and see which smart ass had made the comment. Luckily for the crew, Matt was too amped up at the prospect of a good battle. “First Mate Samantha you are in charge of the bridge in my absence.”

“Matt what the hell do you think you are doing?”  A slender crew member dressed in a standard white naval dress shirt with loose fitting white dress pants made herself known to her commander. The disapproving frown on her face said it all. Not to say she was not used to Matt’s antics it was just that she never approved.

Grinning at his first mate, Matt was already headed out the door. “What do you think Sammy? I am going to go play with our guests. Now do me a favor and recall any remaining response teams to the top deck. Hehehe this fight is gonna get interesting!”

“My name’s not Sammy!” Samantha let out a scream of protest but Matt was already gone. Sighing in defeat, Samantha turned to what was effectively now her bridge until Matt deigned to return from his “fun” as he considered it. “Well what are you all staring at! Sound the alert and direct any remaining response teams to the deck. Make sure the engine room is covered! Get a team to the brig and make sure the remaining prisoners are still there!”

“M’am shouldn’t we have sent someone down there when the original report came in? I feel it is counterproductive to send a team down now when the original prisoner has been running free for the past hour. If one escaped they are probably all out…” One of the remaining Bridge crew voiced her opinions to her new officer in charge.

Groaning a little in annoyance over yet another situation Matt did not think through, Samantha slouched petulantly in the command chair.  “Just do it. You and I both know Matt would just tell us to shut it if we brought it up while he was here.”

Grumbling a little in annoyance Samantha crossed her arms over her chest and stayed slouched in the command chair. Even in her slouched position she could already see Matt’s Azumarill beating down on a Flareon.

It had not even been a full ten minutes and she could already see Aqua response teams rushing up from various access points to engage the Magma assault team. What was worrying was that the scout team had yet to report in and there were less Magma members above deck than when they had landed.

Mulling over her options, Samantha found nothing good. Locking the ship down was damn near impossible, which, meant that they would have to sweep the ship floor by floor and hope to Mew they found them all.

“Samantha! Look!”

Startling her from her musings, the slender blonde looked up from the current battle taking place on the deck to see what the bridge member was pointing at. The incoming ships had been a wave of small speed boats. As quickly as they appeared in her field of vision they were gone. Hidden under the overhang of the ship’s deck and out of sight, Samantha turned to her communications officer. “Eyes on those boats, whatever they are doing it is not good for us. I want to know what is going on down there!”

Cursing Matt once more for leaving her in charge of the ship and unable to leave to find out herself, Samantha closed her eyes for a moment and once more found herself in a situation above her pay grade.

“M’am! They are using their pokemon to super heat the hull right at the water line!” The communication’s officers informed her in a panic. The remaining bridge crew shared a concerned look, if Magma managed to put enough holes in the ship at the water line there was a high probability they would sink. Once the ship sunk the survivors would be easy pickings for the Magma troops.

She could see what Magma was trying to do. With the fighting still going on, on the deck, the members that had gotten below deck, and the assault going on outside. They were trying to divert Aqua’s resources to the point where they would become ineffective at stopping all avenues of Magma’s assault.

“The hull will hold for now. Communications, direct any remaining members with pokemon to join the current teams on the deck to subdue the attackers.”

“M’am what about the attackers outside the ship?” One of the crew members ventured.

A cruel smile crossed Samantha’s face as she turned her attention to the weapons officer. “Release the depth charges off the side chutes.”

 

Aqua Command Ship – Brig

As he awoke, Brock was immediately aware of a painful thumping in his head. The rock specialist groaned in dismay but managed to pull himself into a sitting position. It almost felt like someone kicked him in the head.

Much like Ash, Brock surveyed the area and found that he was in some sort of cell sans a door that appeared to have been ripped apart. The silence that pervaded the brig was almost unnatural, the only thing he could distinguish was some creaking from the ship’s metal frame shifting.

‘How the hell did I get here.’ Thinking back over the past day or two, the last thing that Brock remembered was the Captain announcing that they were about to be hit by a storm wave. A lecherous grin crossed Brock’s face. ‘Of course Lucy and I were having too much fun below deck.’

A vacant look crossed Brock’s face and drool started to come out the side of Brock’s mouth as his mind focused in on his last rewarding encounter with the woman. Just when he was getting to the good part he suddenly realized something…it wasn’t Lucy that he was with.

Snapping out of his mini trance, Brock jumped to his feet, he had to warn Ash. “Ash! Ash are you in here?”

Quickly making his way to the broken cell door, Brock looked left and right before almost groaning upon the sight of the two dead grunts and the dead pokemon. The blows made to the bodies left little doubt in Brock’s mind that Ash had been the culprit.

Looking through the remaining cells confirmed his suspicion. Squatting down he carefully picked up the shredded remains of Ash’s suppression gloves and the shattered inhibitors. Unfortunately there would be no way to put the gloves back together and without Mewtwo or Blaine he was unsure how he would stop Ash on a rampage.

“Shit…” Muttering to himself, Brock made his way out of the brig and into the hallway. The scene that he found was if anything worse than the brig. “Ash really must be in a rage…”

Trying to keep calm in such a situation was a difficult thing but Brock was much like his rock type pokemon, tough and unyielding no matter what the circumstance. ‘So I have to deal with Lucy, whoever kidnapped us, and find Ash…great just great.’

A sudden explosion from below almost caused Brock to fall into the hallway’s wall. The ship suddenly listed violently to the right, knocking Brock to the ground in surprise.

“Ugh…” Rubbing the back of his head that had once more managed to find a hard surface, Brock got back to his feet. Stumbling a little bit before finding his footing, Brock managed to compensate for the permanent list to the right that the ship had taken. Whatever was happening below did not bode well for this ship.

Taking off at a jogging pace, Brock made his way towards the nearest stairwell planning on making his way to the ship’s deck. By the time he reached a stairwell it became quite apparent that the ship was much larger than one would expect.

To Brock’s surprise when he opened the door into the main stairwell he came face to face with the last person he expected to see on this ship. “Paul?”

The lavender hair man did not seem to be nearly as surprised and instead simply raised an eyebrow at the spikey haired man. “I see you are up princess. Cynthia and I were on our way up to wake you up.”

“What?” Brock ended up even more confused by Paul’s comments until he finally started to process everything. “Wait! You were in the brig and you just left me there passed out?!”

“Yes.” Rolling his eyes, Paul motioned to Cynthia who had been waiting on the lower landing.

“Why would you leave me unattended? I could have been killed!” Clearly Brock was starting to become stressed over Paul’s cavalier attitude over the situation.

“Clearly you were fine. We left the girl with you anyway.” Paul grumbled a bit in annoyance over Brock’s tone that was starting to become hysterical.

Cynthia popped up behind Paul and looked behind Brock and frowned a little when she didn’t see Lucy anywhere. Turning her attention to Brock who was currently still trying to come to grips with the fact that he had just been left in the cell like a sack of potatoes, Cynthia interrupted his little pity party. “Where is the girl you were with anyway?”

“She wasn’t there when I came to.” Brock stated before finally noticing Cynthia. Stars seemed to appear in his eyes and while Cynthia and Paul shared a look over the information, Brock quickly advanced on the beautiful Sinnoh Champion.

Getting down on one knee in record time, Brock produced a ring from his pocket before presenting it to Cynthia. “Marry me beautiful angel and you shall never want for anything, I pledge my heart to you now and forever.”

“What is your problem?!” Cynthia was starting to doubt her choice of bringing Paul along. The two men Paul seemed to have a history with were a super powered sociopathic force of nature known as the Burning Nightmare and a man that was clearly a delusional womanizer.

“Pathetic as always Harrison.” Paul commented before smacking Brock in the back of the head causing the older man to fall to the floor in pain.

“You didn’t need to hit so hard…besides the lady never said no.” Getting himself back up off the floor, Brock turned hopefully to Cynthia.

For her part, Cynthia just stared at the man in disbelief. Was he not able to pick up on her inherent disgust over his proposal? Leveling a glare at the unbelievably persistent man, Cynthia’s tone adopted an icy tone. “No. If you are quite done, we need to get to the deck if we hope to survive whatever is happening to this ship.”

“So cold…” Brock muttered before Paul suddenly dropped six pokeballs into Brock’s hands unexpectedly. Giving Paul a questioning look at the action, Brock looked down for a moment in confusion.

Rolling his eyes in annoyance Paul started to follow Cynthia up the stairs towards the main deck. “They are yours idiot. I swear you are just as dense as Ash sometimes.”

After a moment’s pause Brock reattached his pokeballs to the inside of his vest and followed the two Sinnoh trainers up the stairs.

 

Aqua Command Ship – Main Deck

 

With a violent roar Ash threw the struggling Magby off of the deck and into the ocean below. Right before he was about to get onto the main deck of the ship he had run into a couple of Magma assault team members that had been trying to make it below deck. Unfortunately they had run right into Ash and had attempted to attack him.

Once he fully breached the entry way and made it onto the deck, Ash looked around with a slight grin on his face. The Aura called out to him singing through his blood as he raised his hand up and shot out a burst of Aura. The disc like projectile of his aura manifestation slammed into one of the responding Team Aqua members and sent him flying over the edge of the ship just like the Magby.

“Oh ho! What do we have here!?” Matt had spotted the man that had suddenly appeared and watched him carelessly dispose of both a pokemon and one of his men. This guy must have been the escaped prisoner from the limited reports they had received from the response teams.

Noticing the glowing man was advancing on him, Matt felt it prudent to release his most powerful pokemon to handle this menace. “Not a big talker eh? Well no worries I have just the thing for you it is still in the experimental stages but I am sure you’ll understand.”

Ash just stared at the man with curiosity in his eyes. A challenge perhaps? Without breaking his stride towards the buff Aqua member, Ash carelessly caught a Poliwraith by the arm, the pokemon had attempted to take him down with a mega punch but Ash quickly disposed of the pokemon. Burrowing his arm deeply into the pokemon’s brain case before letting loose a torrent of burning aura, Ash let the body fall, a steady stream of smoke pouring out of the pokemon’s eyes, mouth, and the hole Ash had left behind.

“Well shit…you are one fucked up individual. Not even a glance. Hehehe well here is a challenge for ya! Go Blastoise!” Matt grinned upon seeing his giant turtle pokemon enter the battle field.

“Toiiiseeee!” The giant turtle roared a challenge across the field.

If Ash was impressed or even intimidated he did not show it. Instead he launched another aura blast at the turtle pokemon.

“Toiseeee.” Blastoise withdrew into its shell and let the blast bounce off.

Matt shook his head in disappointment. Here he thought this man was really going to be a challenge. The blast did not even dent his turtle’s shell. Still he did promise the man. “Mega Evolve.”

“Toiseeeee.” Blastoise started to glow and shift in shape. The two cannons on its back slowly merged into one giant cannon. A smaller shell formed on each one of the forearms of the giant shelled turtle with a cannon coming out from each of them.

Once the transformation was complete the giant turtle pokemon immediately aimed all three cannons at Ash before a wickedly accurate tri blast of Hydro Cannon slammed into Ash.

In a moment Ash went from standing to flying across the deck until his body met the cruel and unforgiving structure of the bridge’s base.

With a grunt of pain, Ash felt like he had been through a blender even with his Aura dulling the senses of pain. With a roar of anger Ash’s aura started to burn even fiercer in an attempt to push back the wall of water that was threatening to make him a permanent fixture of the Bridge.

“Hehehe don’t even think about it little man! This here is something our backer provided to his top agents. It is called Mega Evolution and though it only lasts for a short time it gives my Blastoise more than enough power to handle a little gnat like you!” Grinning like an idiot, Matt started to laugh along with his Blastoise who had let up on the hydro cannon attack. Carefully watching his opponent he watched as Ash slumped to the ground in a heap.

Slowly pulling himself back up to his feet, Ash managed to level a glare at the man. He couldn’t understand it as normally battles were a breeze even against pokemon. Growling in anger at being so easily dismissed, Ash slowly built his aura into an intense blaze before firing a column of aura born fire back at the turtle pokemon. “Burn! Burn! BURN!” Screaming in rage, Ash once more felt his aura singing through his blood begging him to rip the turtle to shreds.

Blastoise simply side stepped the column but even avoiding a direct hit the wave of energy managed to singe the shell on his forearm. Roaring in pain at the unexpected turn of events, Blastoise turned all three cannons on Ash without an order from Matt.

“Nail him to the wall!” Matt roared in anger over the damn jackass daring to land a blow on his pokemon. With a roar of agreement Blastoise let loose another torrent of water. Unfortunately Ash was so beat up from the fights below deck and the initial blow that he didn’t have time to react.

Once more Ash found himself nailed to the bridge. This time the pressure of the water started to press him into the metal and create an Ash sized indent. The Elite Ranger screamed in pain over the torrent of water as his body started to give out even with his aura under the pressure.

“Sorry kid this is where your story ends.” Laughing aloud at the pain he was causing Matt shot a confident smirk towards his Blastoise pokemon. “Finish him Blastoise before the evolution wears off. I want him to be a pancake.”

Blastoise roared in approval before redoubling his efforts against the young Aura user.

Several things happened at once. Cynthia, Paul and Brock burst through one of the other entrances to the deck. Lucy also appeared from yet another entrance. Finally Gary Oak appeared out of nowhere on Ash’s Pidgeot.

“Electivire go!” Gary released his electric pokemon while landing on the deck.

“Electivire stand by for battle!” Paul yelled before releasing his own.

Gary and Paul’s Electivires appeared from their pokeballs, both roaring a challenge before sharing a glance at their twin. With dual grins the two pokemon turned towards the Blastoise.

“Thunder!” Paul needlessly pointed at the Blastoise.

“You too Electivire!” Gary yelled.

The two electric pokemon charged up momentarily before two massive columns of thunder struck the turtle pokemon.

Blastoise roared in pain as even with the aid of the mega evolution it was hit with two super effective attacks.

While Gary and Paul assisted Ash, Cynthia took to attacking other members of Team Aqua and Magma to protect their rear. Garchomp was making short work of any challengers on her end.

Meanwhile Brock had chosen to confront Lucy when he spotted her coming out of one of the deck access points. “Steelix go!”

Lucy came up short when the giant metal snake appeared before her and cutting off her escape route. She stared up at the giant grinning snake as it’s coils clicked together in an intimidating manner. She turned her attention to Brock before throwing a nervous smile onto her face. “Brock? I am so glad you made it out!”

Brock leveled a glare at her before nonverbally instructing Steelix to block any escape routes that the imposter may take.  “Who are you?”

Smiling at the Rock type ex gym leader, Lucy carefully tried to take a step back only for Steelix to loop his tail around and block her attempted escape. “Brock…honey what are you doing? You are starting to act like a crazy stalker boyfriend…”

“You are not Lucy…so who the hell are you?” Brock stood unmoving with his arms crossed over his chest and awaiting an answer.

Lucy waved her hand while laughing a little in annoyance over the matter. “Brock you are so silly…really what are you saying? Of course I am Lucy!”

Shaking his head in annoyance Brock once more cut in before she could spew any further crap. “Cut it bitch you aren’t Lucy.” A lecherous grin crossed Brock’s face as he launched into an unbelievably lecherous and disturbing explanation. “You see imposter…you were almost perfect in your imitation of Lucy but two things were not quite right.” Holding up his pointer finger before continuing on with his explanation, Brock stared at the imposter without blinking. “First your nipples are 1/8th longer than Lucy’s nipples. Not something an ordinary man would notice but as a connoisseur of women I certainly took note.” Noting the disgusted look on the imposter’s face, Brock continued on without stopping. “Second…Lucy would never sleep with me. That girl has been shooting me down for years. Of course I did not notice at first because I was so excited hehe…but after waking up I realized what was going on.”

Duplica stared at Brock with a mixture of disgust and admiration. The last thing she ever expected was to be ousted due to her nipples and now she felt a little queasy over the fact she had slept with the man for no reason. Despite all of her material on Lucy it seemed her research was not quite accurate. “Well I never expected you to be that much of a perv. Still my mission for my Master is complete.” Gesturing towards Ash who was currently recovering from the latest blow from Blastoise before releasing an aura blast towards one of the random Magma pokemon attempting to take advantage of his weakened state, Duplica stepped closer to the edge of the deck. “I was to awaken Ash’s aura so my Master could truly see his power. Luckily the fools did it for me so I no longer have a reason to be here.

Shifting her weight onto her left hip, Duplica shot a smile towards Brock before jumping over the edge of the deck and into the water.

Gasping in surprise, Brock ran to the edge of the ship and looked down for any sign of Duplica. Cursing in anger, Brock realized that she was gone.

Turning his attention back to battle at hand, Brock directed his Steelix back into the mix to assist Garchomp in decimating the remaining ranks of pokemon.

Meanwhile on the other end of the ship Gary and Paul currently had the mega Blastoise distracted with their two Electivire. The two thunderbolt pokemon were having a problem completely overcoming Blastoise even with the type advantage.

Gary and Paul had finally made it over to Ash who had finally succumbed to the drain on his powers. The Elite Ranger had passed out on the deck of the ship from the overwhelming pain that had caused his aura to burn out momentarily.

“Shit! We need to get him out of here.” Gary commented as he hoisted Ash up as best he could before Paul grabbed Ash’s other arm to split the difference of the weight.

Grunting in annoyance over the fact he was hauling Ash’s worthless ass around because the indomitable force of nature had finally been stopped by a fucked up experiment. Whatever this mega evolving involved it was something that was going to cause trouble. “If that thing can stop this doofus in his tracks then we really don’t have a chance.”

Gary nodded. “I assume you know about this moron’s condition?”

“Yeah…we can discuss it later though. For now we need to make a tactical withdraw.” Gary motioned to Cynthia to wrap up and withdraw.

While Gary and Paul loaded Ash onto Pidgeot’s back, the twin Electivire pokemon kept throwing thunderbolt attacks out to keep both the Blastoise and the other pokemon at bay.

Cynthia and Brock similarly withdrew to the edge of the ship’s deck to withdraw from the losing battle. Even Cynthia with all her power as a Champion knew the cost of victory would be too high. Team Aqua had disposed of most of the remaining Magma members during the distraction that was the prison break. This of course left the members of Aqua with nothing to concentrate on except for the prisoners.

While Gary and Brock got onto Pidgeot’s back with Ash’s passed out form. Paul and Cynthia were readying to evacuate upon Garchomp’s back.

“Electivire Flash!”

“Electivire follow the lead of Paul’s and also hit them with flash!” Gary yelled out.

While team Aqua was blinded by the sudden bright light the bird and dragon pokemon took off once the remaining pokemon on the battlefield were recalled. 

The pair of made good use of their time to get out of range of Team Aqua. Luckily with the Aqua scouts killed in the initial scrimmage with Team Magma and Team Magma strike force mainly destroyed, the group was able to get away unmolested.

“Where to?” Gary yelled over the rushing wind.

Cynthia pointed towards a distant speck of land. “Dewford Island! Dead ahead!”

Without further ado the pair oriented towards Dewford Island.

 

A/N well this chapter was longer than I had planned by quite a bit. If you are interested in the polls I am in debate over Cynthia/Ash pairing vs. May/Ash so go ahead and vote. I don’t know where I am going completely but I can be swayed. Thanks to everyone for the reviews so far. If you are in the mood review even if it is a sick burn on my terrible grammar or what you hate about what I am doing with this story. If you want a definite May/Ash check out my new story which I will probably be writing a chapter for before my internet goes out. Anyway hope ya enjoyed and finally next chapter we get to Dewford. Just a side note this story has exploded into an epic arc and I am seriously almost ready to cry just thinking of how long this thing is going to end up mostly because I have to write it.


	14. Dewford Town - Inner Focus

A/N: Alright guys you can thank TegzTsinelas because he brought up the point that I have weaved a bit of a complex story line at this point with all the different groups and their goals. I know I have dropped some bread crumbs here or there about each group but nothing that really explains everything. This chapter’s goal is to explain everything that is going on. With Gary joining the group and the information that Cynthia got off of the Team Aqua command ship this is a perfect time to do this. I won’t lie I have been kinda putting off this chapter as you can see by the double update to A Really Nice Shot.

 

 

Dewford Town – Unknown location

Ash’s story left Cynthia in a sense of disbelief but she knew without a doubt that every word was the truth. Never in her wildest imagination would she ever think that the young man sitting next to her could have gone through so much in such a short amount of time.

“Ash…” Cynthia ventured while gently placing a hand on his shoulder. She really did not know what to say. Really what could you say to someone who had lost nearly everything in his life?

“Really Cynthia it’s alright…I’m fine can we drop it.” Forcing a smile onto his face, Ash lifted his head up and looked up at Cynthia from his slightly hunched over position.

Cynthia snorted a little while eyeing Ash. “Don’t lie to me you’re not fine.”

Ash’s countenance turned darker and the smile slipped from his face. “Stop it Cynthia you have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“No idea...” Cynthia’s face took on a forlorn quality. “Ash you aren’t the only one that has dealt with loss.”

Ash looked a little ill at ease upon hearing Cynthia response. Perhaps going off on her without knowing anything about her past really wasn’t a great call but the only person he ever really felt had an understanding of his situation was Gary. The young researcher had gone through almost as much as he had and he knew the pain Gary had lived through. Never in a hundred years would he have guessed that Cynthia may be holding back a similar pain. Then again it is usually the people most content and happy that are hiding the worst pain. “I didn’t know…”

Cynthia glanced over at Ash a contemplating look coming over her face. She decided at last, to tell him at least in part of her own story. It was only fair really. “My parents were pokemon researchers. They traveled far and wide across the region of Sinnoh and sometimes even out to Unova or Hoenn.” A smile came back to Cynthia’s face as she began to reminisce over her childhood.

“I would beg and beg every time they left. I always wanted to go with them on their next great adventure.” Cynthia looked down at her clasped hands. She paused a moment trying to recollect herself, this was a story that she shared with few. Outside of her Elite Four and her grandparents few knew what had truly happened to her parents. A little sad laugh left Cynthia’s mouth. “I would always tell them that we were a team.”

“You don’t have to tell me.” Ash’s voice broke the silence between the two and caused Cynthia to look up. Slowly rubbing the back of his head with one hand, Ash chuckled nervously as he realized he had startled her. “I mean I know how hard it can be. Don’t feel you need to tell I had no right implying you didn’t know about losing someone.”

Shaking her head a little, Cynthia pressed a smile to her face just as Ash had done earlier. “No I want to tell you. I rarely tell anyone about my parents.”

Composing herself once again, Cynthia continued onwards before she lost her nerve to tell him. “One day they went off on their next great adventure. They had found some evidence of Dialga, the pokemon that controls time appearing. Of course they had to go, so little was known about Dialga.” Cynthia chuckled a little. “Still is really.”

Ash tentatively reached out with his arm and gently laid it across Cynthia’s shoulder in an act of comfort. A bright blush crept over Ash’s face when Cynthia unexpectedly leaned into him.

Cynthia managed a small smirk knowing that she was causing the boy a certain level of discomfort but she really appreciated the sentiment of support. Continuing on quickly, Cynthia let herself sink a little further into his one arm embrace. “They never came back, Ash. They promised me…they promised they’d come back but the last time I saw them was when I was nine years old. It wasn’t fair…if I had just gone with them…” Cynthia trailed off she already felt the tears coming to her eyes.

The little experience that Ash had with females did little to prepare him for what to do in this type of situation. Leaf’s parents had been alive and well while his mother had been a strong woman. The only time that Leaf had ever really cried was during Delia’s funeral and that day Ash had been crying as well so he hadn’t particularly needed to comfort her. He finally settled on hugging Cynthia just a little closer.

If she even noticed the fact that Ash had drawn her in closer, Cynthia made no mention of it and pressed on with her story. “They were late coming home but they had been late before. First a month went by and then a second. Finally my grandparents filed a report with the local Police and eventually the League got involved. But they were never found again. It was like they never existed.”

“I’m sorry Cynthia if there is anything I can do.” Ash ventured even though he realized it was fruitless offer. If they hadn’t been found by now they were probably truly gone and neither Ash nor Cynthia had any power to bring them back.

“The past no matter how wonderful it was, is nothing but the past.” A watery smile crossed Cynthia face. “My grandmother told me that after they disappeared.” Sighing a little she let her head rest on Ash’s shoulder much to Ash’s embarrassment judging by his bright red face despite the situation. “I like to think that they found Dialga and he just warped to a different era of time inadvertently taking them with him. I like that possibility the most because it gives me hope that they are somewhere out there living a happy life. That is why I became a Researcher as well as the League Champion. If they went to the past I wanted to look for some kind of sign they made it, I know they’d try to leave something somewhere to mark that they are alive and well in that time. I strived to become the champion so if they are in the future they would see me in the League hall of fame and know their little girl was alright.”

“I’m sure they are proud of you no matter what.” Ash responded softly. In a way he thought that Cynthia’s situation was in a way worse than his. At least he knew where he stood. His mother dead by the hand of the father he never knew. Leaf dead by Giovanni’s orders and in return Ash killed his estranged father and ended the cycle. Though sometimes he felt perhaps Giovanni was right. Whenever he lost control he became something worse that Giovanni…something that sadly the mad man would have been proud of.

“Thanks Ash.” Cynthia turned her head and leaned over to him and before she could even really think on what she was doing, she placed a gentle kiss on his cheek.

“Er welcome.” Ash muttered while quickly looking away in what he could only hope would appear to be a nonchalant manner to try and hide his blush.

Laughing a little, Cynthia patted Ash’s arm that was still around her shoulder with her opposite hand. “We should get going. Gary and Brock are probably beside themselves at this point and I am sure Paul is probably complaining about the fact everyone up and left him alone.”

“Er yeah…” Ash nodded in agreement before he withdrew his arm from around Cynthia reluctantly.

A moment later the pair stood up and started to walk back towards the house that Brawley had been nice enough to provide to the traveling group. The man had been a rather accommodating host and even had assigned the group a guide for whenever they left the house to help them out.

“Thanks again Ash…for everything. You really are a great guy. I can see why Paul doesn’t like you.” Cynthia smirked a little.

“Oh yeah?” Ash raised an eyebrow. He had come to a tentative truce with Paul after working with him during the Rocket Wars but they still traded shorts more often than not.

“Yep he’s jealous of you.” Cynthia laughed a little before leading Ash away from the park bench by the hand.

Ash still had the mouth wash in his other hand mostly because he forgot it was even there. “Huh…ya think?”

“Um hmmm.” Cynthia confirmed as she continued onwards. “You both are more alike than you think but whereas you have an easier time talking to people, Paul has never really been comfortable around people. I think in a way he has always been jealous of that.”

“Huh.” Ash pondered Cynthia’s words as they continued towards their temporary home.

If he was honest he would say that Brawley’s behavior was a little suspicious as he never seemed to want the group wandering around the town unattended. Still if he was going to do something he missed his opportunity when he had been down and out after the fight with Team Aqua. Ash had slowly relaxed his guard which is why he had agreed to go out with Brawley tonight. Once more nothing too strange had happened and again Brawley missed an opportune moment if he was planning anything.

The pair continued down the road in silence just enjoying the peace and quiet that the night offered them. If Ash had been paying any real attention he would have noticed his hand never left Cynthia’s hand.

To soon the pair found themselves back at the house. Right before they could enter though they heard a voice cut through the night.

“Hey, Cynthia I see you found Ash.” Gary sauntered up with Brock in tow from one of the side roads that led to the quaint little house. A smirk crossed Gary’s face the moment he saw the pair holding hands but he decided not to push the subject. Gary would hassle his friend later about it.

“I found him at a bar.” Cynthia stated with a slight smirk playing across her mouth. “I had to sober him up first he was a right mess.”

“I’m fine now!” Ash countered in a petulant tone.

Gary rolled his eyes. “I’m surprised you’re standing if you were drinking, Ketchum.”

Brock grinned a little at the comment before interjecting with his own. “I remember this one time while we were in Saffron, Ash disappeared on us and we found him on a park bench the next morning with only his trainer’s belt and boxers on.”

Cynthia laughed a little at the story before glancing over at Ash. “Really? And how did you end up on the park bench, Ash?”

Grumbling a little bit under his breath, Ash shot a glare at Brock for even bringing that night up. After mulling his options over he decided to just get it over with. Gary was looking on in unabashed interest and Cynthia also appeared to want to hear the story. Sighing a little bit in resignation, Ash caved. “Well it was right after we struck a major blow to the Rocket supply machine though Sabrina was understandably less than pleased with the property damage we caused.” A slight grin crossed his face.

“Haha yeah she was impressed we managed to demolish the Fighting Dojo so effectively. Though I think she was just glad we got rid of the competition.” Brock interjected with a goofy grin crossing his face. “I would have done anything for her. If she would have let me stay I would have been her knight in shining armor.”

A sour look crossed Ash’s face at Brock’s mention of Sabrina. “Says the man that she strapped to the wall and threatened to castrate him if he didn’t stop harassing her and trying to convince her that they were soul mates.”

“That was taken out of context and she clearly did not appreciate me for who I am as a man.” Brock responded with indignation.

“What? A manwhore?” Gary smirked a little. Deciding to play a little with Brock since it was so easy, Gary brought up one of Brock’s more embarrassing stories that he had been there to witness. “Or should I bring up that time with Erika’s mom and Erika?”

Brock’s face took on a visibly red shade before he muttered. “No…I rescind my complaint.”

Cynthia laughed a little before fighting off a shiver. Despite the fact that Dewford had a fairly tropical climate the nights still tended to get a little cold especially during their winter season. “Mind if we move indoors? It’s a little chilly out here.”

Nodding in agreement the group made their way into the house. The house was a simple one floor rancher. They walked right into the living room that had a tropical theme to it. Off to the left was a small kitchen with a breakfast bar. The hallway extended out from the living room and down the hall with four doors. Three led off to bedrooms and one to a shared bathroom. As stated a fairly quaint affair but it was better than being cooped up in the pokemon center for days on end.

Paul must have gone to sleep since the door to Brock and Paul’s room was already closed.

Yawning a little, Ash glanced around and noted that everyone else seemed to be equally tired. He decided to finish up the story so that they could get to bed. “Anyway to wrap up the story we were stuck there since we destroyed the magnet train station that Rocket had been using to move supplies in from Johto. It effectively cut off the two regions until it was rebuilt but it also stranded us since we had a lot of support personnel for the mission. So until the League could provide us with transport choppers we didn’t have much to do other than celebrate. One of the nights I over did it a little and I can’t particularly remember what happened but at some point I decided fuck pants.”

Cynthia smirked a little at Ash’s declaration. “Fuck pants eh? Is this normal behavior?”

Gary chuckled a little. “Well there was that one time you ran naked through Pallet Town so I wouldn’t say that is a new line of thought for ya Ashy Boy.”

Brock laughed a little at Gary’s proclamation. “And there was that one time that...”

“AH AH AH!” Ash interjected yelling over whatever Brock was going to say.” Alright we’re done! No more stories all storied out time for bed!”

Brock smiled before shaking his head a little. “Alright…alright well I guess it is late and I am looking to get up early.”

“I think we need to discuss everything tomorrow.” Cynthia interjected her face turning serious. “I recently compiled the information that was downloaded off of the command ship.”

Gary nodded in agreement. “Yeah now that you are better Ash I think we need to discuss what we are going to do about Kanto.”

Without further ado the group split apart. Brock slipped quietly into the room he was sharing with Paul while Ash and Gary disappeared into their own shared room. This left Cynthia standing outside the door to her own room. Her gaze momentarily settled on the door to the room that Ash had disappeared into. “Get yourself together. Just because you share some common pain doesn’t mean anything.”

Without further comment the Sinnoh champion disappeared into her bedroom before she prepared for bed.

 

/\  /\

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The next morning Ash woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon. The smell wafted under the door and gently coaxed him out of his sleep. “Brock must be cooking.” Ash mumbled to himself.  Ash laid there in bed staring up at the ceiling for a moment trying to gather the will to get up. Truthfully though he still felt like shit from drinking last night.

Finally after another ten minutes of lying in bed he forced himself up and stumbled around the room to get changed. Gary must have gotten up a while ago because his bed was empty. ‘Great knowing my luck I’m the last one up.’ Ash thought with a yawn.

When he finally arrived in the kitchen Ash found that he was indeed the last one to wake up. Gary sat at the breakfast bar leaning over a cup of coffee still looking ready to pass out into his breakfast. Paul had already finished and appeared to be reading over some papers. Brock was currently eating his own breakfast at the small kitchen table that was placed in the kitchen itself along with Cynthia.

“Mornin.” Ash grunted out before sliding into the last free seat at the small kitchen table across from Paul and next to Cynthia. A moment later he started to pile on the remaining food left over from Brock’s cooking.

“Mornin Princess glad to see you’re awake.” Paul responded with a slight smirk before returning his attention back to the information he was going over.

“Shut the fuck up Paul it is too early in the morning for this. I’m all for harassing Ketchum but it is too damn early.” Gary grumbled before taking another sip of his coffee.

“You realize it is nine in the morning, Gary. Most people have been up for at least a couple of hours at this point.” Paul responded to Gary’s complaint.

Gary gave Paul a dark look. “Yeah well most people aren’t out looking for Ketchum until two in the morning.”

“Then how come Cynthia and Brock got up just fine this morning at a respectable hour?” Paul queried with a slight smirk playing across his face.

Brock smiled a little while shaking his head in amusement over the little fight between Paul and Gary. “Well when you are taking care of younger siblings you get used to functioning on little sleep.”

“I’m used to getting up at odd hours due to my work as a Researcher.” Cynthia responded with a bright smile before holding up her cup of coffee. “That and a healthy helping of liquid caffeine.”

The group fell into silence with the group finishing up breakfast or trying to wake up. That was until Paul finally looked up from his papers and pulled a disgusted face upon witnessing Ash’s eating habits. “That is disgusting Ketchum, are you even tasting any of that?”

“Hufh?” Ash responded with a mouth full of food before he swallowed it down with an audible gulp that left Paul looking a little green around the gills.

“Nevermind.” Paul muttered much to the amusement of the remaining members of the group and a clueless Ash.

“I think we need to discuss what Paul and I found on the Team Aqua ship. The information I’ve compiled with the help of Paul is deeply troubling especially for the region’s continued independence.” Cynthia decided the group had, had enough time to digest their meals though Ash still appeared to be picking at food here or there.

Paul nodded a little before sliding a piece of paper into the middle. “Team Aqua’s plans were easy to find since it was their ship that we infiltrated and their database had most of their current operations available once Porygon hacked through their fire wall.”

Nodding in agreement, Cynthia took over since she knew the information by heart. “Team Aqua and Magma are looking for corresponding orbs that will wake up one of the Hoenn region’s legendary pokemon. Kyogre and Groudon.”

“Why would they even go after a legendary pokemon?” Gary queried from the breakfast bar. “I’ve seen enough of them during the Rocket Wars to know that they exist but there is a reason they are considered legendary. They aren’t exactly known for their placid and go with the flow attitude.”

“Unless they have a way of controlling them…” Brock ventured before sharing a glance with Ash both recalling the fight in Petalburg Forest and what Sarah and May had revealed after they had been retrieved.

“Shit.” Ash muttered.

“My thoughts exactly.” A pensive looked crossed Brock’s face as he mulled over the information.

“Something you want to share with the rest of the class?” Gary asked with a slightly concerned glance. Anytime both Ash and Brock turned serious it was never a good sign.

“Yeah…” Ash nodded while trying to decide what the best way to frame the encounter would be. Finally he opted for a brief summary. “We ran into Team Aqua along with some ex-Rocket members a couple months ago back in the Petalburg woods. They kidnapped the youngest Stone, Sarah, they were trying to get her clearance code to get into the Devon Corporation. At the time we didn’t know the exact reason but they would need some heavy duty and cutting edge technology to even have a shot at controlling them.”

Paul hummed in agreement before taking up where Cynthia had left off. “That at least gives us a possible angle to block their attempts. If they need the technology that Devon Corporation has that is. If they are working with the remnants of Team Rocket, Aqua may have access to a treasure trove of information. Remember prior to when you and Brock liberated Saffron City, Team Rocket had control of the Sliph Company.”

“So we know how they are going to do it and obviously they are actively trying to accomplish finding these orbs. I guess that leaves why are they pursuing this and where are these orbs that are supposed to awaken the Legendary pokemon?” Gary asked with a thoughtful look crossing his face. He knew at some point during his career as a researcher he had come across something like the orbs but for the life of him he unfortunately could not place it.

“It appears that Team Aqua is planning on awakening Kyogre and using its ability to control the ocean to use as a mobile weapon of mass destruction. They are planning on taking over Hoenn and once they take over Hoenn they are planning on extorting the other regions. Failure to comply and they plan to use Kyogre to literally put the region under water.” Cynthia read through the information she had compiled before taking a look around at the others.

“Fucking nuts.” Ash shook his head in disbelief. “I thought Team Rocket was bad but these people are off their rockers.”

Brock and Gary nodded in affirmation to Ash’s statement. The three had been through the entirety of the Rocket Wars and while Team Rocket’s ambitions had been to rule Kanto they never threatened another region with their violence.

“I wouldn’t be too fast with that assessment, Ash.” Cynthia interjected. “It appears that while originally the remnants of Rocket that made it over were originally joining both sides. Team Rocket still exists in some capacity run by Koga and someone just referred to as “The Master” in what material I could find. Team Rocket appeared to be hedging their bets by supporting both Teams financially but recently they have granted a lot of financial backing to Team Aqua.”

“Great.” Gary muttered. “Just what we fucking need, a group of nut jobs with free access to the remaining financial assets of Team Rocket.”

Ash nodded in agreement before leaning back in his chair and putting his arms behind his head. Pondering on the new information a moment before finally voicing his thoughts on the matter at hand, Ash suddenly remembered some information from Norman. “That makes senses then. Team Rocket crawled out of Kanto a crippled dog with only Koga remaining as an admin. Whoever took over with Koga, this “Master” must have known they were in a weakened position. To keep Aqua and Magma from absorbing them outright they must have bought them off with money. Koga is if nothing else a shrewd son of a bitch. Once he had enough information to go off of he would have chosen a side to back fully when he was convinced he had their trust. This would have left Magma in dire straits financially if they got used to the Team Rocket teat. With Aqua now the muscle for Team Rocket it left Team Magma to fend for itself which is probably why they got into human trafficking they needed money and they needed it quick.”

“Still doesn’t answer why Team Rocket would have let either team absorb it’s members though.” Gary brought up with a frown crossing his face. Unfortunately he did not have near the experience with Koga that Ash or Brock had. The two had run into the ninja more often than one would think.

 Brock postulated a theory of his before glancing over at Ash in askance. “Unless you think Koga would have something else in mind? He is a master tactician and will strike from a direction his opponent will never see coming.”

Nodding a little, Ash’s eyes suddenly widened when he managed to put it all together from what Norman had said and what Jessie and James had told him when he originally landed in Hoenn. “Jessie and James were my informants in Team Rocket and they said that their contacts were going dark. Koga would eliminate anyone that wasn’t loyal to him because he is planning a coup. With Team Rocket agents loyal only to him deep within both Aqua and Magma he would only need to say the word and the heads of Magma and Aqua would be eliminated. With the two groups in chaos he would swoop in and take over both effectively resurrecting Team Rocket from the grave and recouping all the money he provided.”

 “Shit.” Cynthia was currently processing the information that Ash and Brock had just dumped on the group. “How certain are you of something like this occurring?”

Ash and Brock shared a glance before Brock gave a somber nod. “We’ve both been on the receiving end of Koga during the Rocket Wars. The man was a shrewd tactician and he would sacrifice whoever he saw a disposable to assure that he came out on top. It wouldn’t be out of the question if he killed off any Team Rocket member he did not think he completely loyal to him and Team Rocket.”

“The real question then if this is what is actually occurring is why he favored Team Aqua over Team Rocket.” Gary ventured with a slightly confused look coming over his face. He hated to admit it but he was out of his depth with this conversation. Since he was a researcher he normally had all the answers but for once he was deferring to Ash and Brock’s expertise. A slight shudder passed through Gary at the mere thought of Ash and Brock followed by the word expertise.

“Easy if Koga is as much of a sociopath as Ash and Brock thinks he is, he will be looking at the big picture.” Paul muttered before pulling forth a second stack of papers. “Team Magma’s plans look tame compared to Team Aqua from the files we could find. They want to raise Groudon from the ground much like Team Aqua but they appear to just want to expand the land of Hoenn. Their end goal appears to expand the farming land so Hoenn can rival Kanto as an agricultural power house. On top of that they want to create a strangle hold on the resort industry by creating hot springs. Not exactly world domination material here compared to Aqua’s plans.”

Cynthia nodded in agreement before putting her own paperwork down. “Minus the human trafficking and assault Team Magma actually are fairly tame. I can see why Koga would have dumped them the moment he realized their plans.”

“So I guess the question is what our next step will be at this point.” Brock bridged the question. The ex-gym leader did not like how this was shaping up. When Red sent them over he had assumed it would be a squashing a startup not finding a fully functioning Team Rocket about to take over Hoenn and threaten the entire world.

“We have to stop it as soon as possible.” Ash responded before looking to Gary. “Gary what are the chances we can get any help from Kanto. I know Red is gone but did you get any updates from Professor Oak?”

Gary shook his head a somber looking crossing his face. “Last I got in touch with him was a week ago. I’ve tried and tried again but I can’t get a signal to go through. Gramps was afraid that Agatha would shut down communication outside the region and it seems she has succeeded.”

Sighing in annoyance, Gary glared at the opposite wall. He felt completely useless and he hated getting cut off from Gramps. The old man was the last bit of family he had left and he didn’t want to lose him to a senseless war. Finally realizing that everyone was looking at him Gary forced himself out of his thoughts to continue.

“Prior to losing contact Gramps said it wasn’t looking good. Agatha has started to consolidate power at Indigo Plateau. She has driven Lance and the loyalists back. Unfortunately Lance doesn’t have the man power to make an effective counter strike and retake the League seat. Clearly with Red gone and Ash here there isn’t any one that can take on the remaining Elite members while Lance and Karen handle Agatha and Will.” Gary stated.

“Great…just great so no help from Kanto.” Paul muttered in annoyance. The purple haired trainer hated politics more than anything. “Hoenn is the nearest neighbor and obviously about to erupt in war as well.”

“Any chance Sinnoh could assist, Cynthia?” Ash ventured. Though he was unsure of where Sinnoh stood if it’s Champion could afford to be away it must not be in a terrible situation.

A frown crossed Cynthia’s face at Ash’s question. She gently shook her head. “I’m sorry Ash, Sinnoh may not be in any kind of trouble right now but there are tensions on the rise between Sinnoh and Unova. I don’t think even as the Champion I could convince the League to devote troops to a foreign war. I’ll help where I can but if Sinnoh and Unova break out into war I may have to return to Sinnoh.”

“I thought Alder was a peaceful fellow.” Gary asked.

Paul answered with a slight smile. “Alder is fairly nonviolent and is currently trying to calm the tensions but the people are calling for blood and most of his Elite Four are with the Unovians on this one.”  

“What is causing the tension, Cynthia?” Brock asked with genuine interest regarding the current situation. To be honest the three Kanto trainers knew very little about Unova due to the fact it was one of the furthest regions from Kanto save for Kalos.

Sighing a little, Cynthia stared down into her cup of coffee. “Unfortunately the reason the tensions are so high is due to a lack of oversight on my part. A small terrorist organization recently struck at one of our port cities. They blew up a ship that was full of trainers from Unova that came over to compete in our League. Most of the trainers were children that were lost.” Tears started to pinprick the sides of Cynthia’s eyes at the mention of children. She had a soft spot for them and could only imagine the loss they were going through.

To the interest of everyone the remaining Trainers observed Ash gently drawing Cynthia into a one armed hug.

Paul simply raised an eyebrow at the gesture before taking up where Cynthia laid off. The entire situation pissed him off to be quite honest but with practiced ease he reeled in his temper and spoke in his normal dispassionate voice. “Some of the more radical Unovians believe it was a League conspiracy. The ship contained some of their best and brightest next generation trainers. The fringe groups believe that Sinnoh was attempting to cripple their next generation fighters and leave Unova open for invasion. Unfortunately it has started to gain traction amongst the public and some of Unova’s Elite Four.”

With a nod of understanding Brock turned his attention back to Gary. “Well I guess that leaves us with little in the way of help. Any idea of who is currently supporting Lance and the loyalists?”

Gary nodded a little. “Lance and Karen are clearly leading the loyalists. Most of the gym leaders are anyone’s guess as to if they are following Agatha out of fear or not willing to make a stance. Clair being Lance’s cousin is clearly supporting the loyalists.”

Ash let out a snort at the mention of Clair which earned him a glare from Gary.

“Anyway.” Gary continued on still glaring at Ash for the interruption. “I believe Forrest will probably side with Lance if it comes to a fight but he is probably keeping his head down.”

Brock nodded in agreement to this statement.

“Erika will probably stay out of some fucked up sense of duty since she is supposed to be the head of the Kanto gym leaders. She will probably try to hold things together though which way she’ll go is anyone’s guess. Janine if she is anything like her father will side with Agatha as will Sabrina but only for convenience her loyalty is with whoever appears to be the winning side. Blaine is too much of an opinionated asshole not to be a loyalist, that and he hates Agatha.” Gary smirked a little at this.

“Any word on Misty?” Ash ventured a little concerned about what the young Cerulean gym leader would decide to do. The girl was bitter about the loss of her sister and had taken over the gym after the Rocket Wars end when her other two remaining sisters decided to retire.

“She appears to be Agatha’s newest apprentice.” Gary stated with a frown. “She’s gone full mental and attacked me at the ranch when I was trying to leave. Ash if you run into her you’ll have to put her down she is like a rabid dog.”

Ash nodded reluctantly in understanding. He had been afraid of that. “And Johto?”

Chuckling a little, Gary pressed onwards. Leave it to Ash to just want the information. “Falkner, Bugsy, and Jasmine probably won’t make waves no matter what their personal feelings. Chuck as you know is Bruno’s best friend so he will support Agatha. Whitney I believe will be in a similar position to Forrest. Morty is anyone’s guess but I am betting he will go loyalist.”

“Why do you think that?” Brock asked. To be honest he had met Morty and the man was more often than not out for himself. Honestly the guy was kinda a dick to most people that he did not count as friends and even then it was touch and go.

A smirk crossed Ash’s face before interjecting. “Because Morty chases Jasmine around like a little lost puppy and Pryce happens to be Jasmine’s mentor. Pryce is friends with Blaine and the two of them are grumpy old bastards. Add that to the fact that Pryce is no fan of Agatha either he will go loyalist just to make Agatha’s life a living hell. It will cascade down because Jasmine will follow Pryce’s lead and Morty will follow Jasmine.”

Gary clapped a little. To be quite honest he was rather impressed with Ash’s ability to pick up on such a complex relationship. “Right on the head Ketchum and of course this will leave Agatha with her new condensed Kanto and Johto elite four of Lorelei, Bruno, Will, and of course herself as standing Champion.”

“I forgot about that.” Brock replied with a smile coming across his face at the thought of Jasmine. “Known far and wide as the gym leader with the smackable ass...I can see why Morty would fall for her.”

“I think you’re the only one that calls her that.” Gary muttered with a slightly sour look crossing his face.

Cynthia was not even hiding the glare nor was Paul while Ash just rolled his eyes when he caught sight of the goofy grin crossing Brock’s face.

“And he wonders why he’s single?” Cynthia whispered to Ash.

Shrugging his shoulders a little, Ash let out a long suffering sigh before responding. “Sadly I don’t think he even realizes how creepy he gets no matter how many times he gets shot down.”

Cynthia nodded in understanding before taking another sip of her coffee while looking over her notes to review any further information that they hadn’t gone over. ‘Ah yes the Frontier Brains I forgot about them.’ Mulling the idea over she decided to ask Gary since he seemed to know the most about what was going on in Kanto. “What about the Frontier Brains? Would that provide Lance enough of a power base?”

Gary shook his head a frown coming to his face. “With some possible exceptions they are staying out of it. Scott the guy in charge of the Battle Frontier has already stated he is remaining neutral. Palmer on the other hand is forced into staying neutral since he has a presence in Sinnoh any indication of supporting one faction or the other may result in Sinnoh getting drawn into the war since he has known ties there.”

Sighing a little in annoyance, Gary decided to voice Gramp’s thoughts on the subject. “Gramps is concerned that Scott may be waiting for the League to kill itself off and then swoop down on the victors while they’re weak and institute the Battle Front as the new powerbase at Indigo.”

“Sounds like Kanto and Johto region are a right mess.” Paul sighed in annoyance. He had been hoping that they could get some kind of support from Kanto but it appeared at that the Kanto region was even more fucked up than he thought it had been. “So short of Red returning or Ash returning with Mewtwo and cowing the gym leaders into submission so Agatha’s Elite Four can be dealt with, Kanto is pretty much out of it at this point?”

“Wait who is Mewtwo?” Cynthia asked, one her eyebrows going up at the mention of the name. She had heard it before in passing conversation regarding Cinnabar and most recently with Steven only a month or so ago.

“Er…” Ash nervously laughed a little at the question. Mewtwo was a recluse and for good reason. “Well ya see…”

Rolling his eyes at Ash’s inability to articulate, Gary decided to take over. “Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to help you Ketchum.”

Turning his attention to Cynthia who was looking between Ash and Gary with interest, Gary started to explain. “Mewtwo was a lab experiment that was set free by Rocket on Cinnabar. He was the first of Team Rocket’s Legendary Program. Rocket was working on creating a line of pokemon that could rival or outclass Legendary pokemon in terms of power. If it had succeeded Kanto would have been taken in less than a month. Luckily Ashy boy over here somehow befriended the Legendary…though I still think it just felt bad for him.”

Chuckling a little, Ash nervously rubbed the back of his head. Upon seeing Cynthia’s questioning look he decided to continue with Gary’s explanation. “Well Mewtwo is kinda my pokemon but only really because he found me interesting as a trainer and I guess he felt comfortable enough with me catching him. Really it was only so if a trainer came across him he would be registered as caught.”

“So he pretty much has free range?” Cynthia queried.

Nodding a little, Ash responded. “Yeah I think he’d kill me if I actually tried to restrict him to coming with me. Then again he yells at me when I don’t call him but normally when I do call him he usually says he is busy.”

Brock laughed a little at that. “Yeah this one time Ash and I were wiping up some of the remaining members of Team Rocket that were found in Lavender Town trying to rebuild a Kanto powerbase. Well Ash and I get in a sticky situation and for the first time ever, Ash calls out to Mewtwo since the pokemon is psychic. He responded to both of us and told us that he was busy and we’d have to find our own way out of the mess we got ourselves stuck in.”

Paul snorted in amusement. “Really Ketchum, only you could not only have a Legendary class pokemon but have one that doesn’t actually help you. So I am assuming his assistance can’t be counted on for Hoenn or Kanto.”

A slightly embarrassed blush came to Ash’s face as the trainer muttered. “Umm…no not really. I honestly don’t know half the things that Mewtwo is up to but he checks in time to time.”

“What about Red?” Cynthia queried the Kanto Trainers. The more information that came out the more it appeared that they were on their own. She would have to work on getting in contact with Steven so that he could mobilize the League in Hoenn against the threat. From the information she had found it already looked like it would be a real uphill battle to root out Aqua, Rocket, and Magma.

Brock shrugged a little before looking at Ash and Gary. Seeing the two of them deferring to him since he was the last in contact with Red, Brock spoke up. “Well I was the last one in contact with him. From what he told me he had to deal with something and he’d be back when it was finished. Not exactly helpful.” Brock mused with a thoughtful look crossing his face.

“So the Kanto and Johto regions are one step away from open civil war and Hoenn is one step away from a war breaking out from a threat that the Hoenn League doesn’t even know about.” Paul stated with his ever present frown.

“I need to get in touch with Steven right away then.” Cynthia stated.

Ash nodded in agreement. “We need to stop them before they find the orb to activate it. I need to get in touch with Professor Birch to see if he has any clues as to where it may be.”

The group started to get up from their seats and prepare themselves to head out.

“Alright I will go talk to Brawley see if he knows anything. The rest of you should head to the pokemon center and get a secure line to Steven.” Ash stated while he went about securing his pokeballs to his mag belt.

“Can he be trusted?” Paul asked while taking the same steps as Ash was currently taking and double checking his pokeballs were secure to his mag belt.

Ash shot a confident smile towards the group. “No worries guys, I got a sixth sense about this kinda thing.”

“I like haven’t heard that one before.” Gary muttered under his breath.

Cynthia just shook her head a little in amusement at the little byplay. “Meet us at the pokecenter after you meet with Brawley…and Ash…”

“Uh yeah?” Ash asked with a confused look on his face.

Smiling a little at the look, Cynthia gathered the information she had compiled from the command ship that she would send to Steven as evidence. “Be careful I don’t want to see you getting blasted into a giant metal structure again.”

“No need to worry.” Ash chuckled before disappearing out the door to go and find Brawley.

“You think he’ll be alright?” Brock mused as he stared out the door that Ash disappeared through a moment ago.

“Even if he isn’t he’s like a cockroach he’ll never go down.” Paul muttered darkly.

A slight smirk crossed Gary’s face. “He’ll be fine but something tells me we should keep our guard up. So be prepared for anything.”

The remaining group departed a moment later none ever being the wiser that the entire house had been bugged the entire time by Team Aqua and a response team was already closing in on their location to stop them from reaching the pokemon center.

 

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Well the set up chapter is complete. Hopefully this will be a good chapter to tie some of those loose ends together from earlier and provide a set up as to where everything is going from here. If you have any questions I will answer what I can to clear things up without giving away the story line or I will try to work it into the next chapter. I hope the expansion on Ash and Cynthia’s relationship was enough to appease everyone.  I don’t want it to move too slow but at the same time I don’t want them to be all lovey dovey in another chapter. I am going to ease into it. I really hate when the characters meet one chapter and by the next chapter they are in a deeply committed relationship. Anyway next chapter we’ll check up on May and Lucy. After that it will be another chapter or two of carnage while Ash and company take on the entire Aqua base.

  


	15. Dewford Town - Defiant

A/N: Well after that last cluster fuck of death and action from last chapter we will once again enter a rebuilding chapter or two…for Rayshippers we will have a little bit of a possibility for Ash and Cynthia. I don’t want to swing the vote too much so I am going to leave everything open with no defining couples at this time. Mainly we won’t have much action on the table for this chapter. I have also gone back and edited some of the previous chapters since I was minus internet for two weeks…sooo yeah. I will continue to edit the chapters to fall in line with the slight changes I have made. The newly edited chapters will have a 2.0 on them. The changes are not enough to change the flow of the story but hopefully new readers will appreciate the touch ups. Feel free to reread if you like but I have tried not to do too much to the original chapters that would upset the current readers. Other than that I am currently unemployed and will be spending most of my time job hunting so I probably won’t be updating for a while.

 

Dewford Town- Defiant

Rustboro City - Hospital

May yawned before stretching her arms…or at least attempted to. Realizing that her right arm was stuck under something, May glanced over to see what exactly was impeding her movement. Gasping in surprise, May realized that it was not so much what but who that was trapping her right arm. At some point while awaiting an update from the Doctor on the girl they had found both had ended up falling asleep.

Of course being that the girl said someone was out to kill Ash and knowing his past well May was obviously concerned over the man despite the fight they had gotten into earlier. Drew had stayed as well claiming that May needed someone to watch her at all times with the amount of trouble she got herself into.

Gently pushing on Drew’s shoulder in an attempt to wake Drew up, May smiled a little at the snore that Drew produced in response to May’s prodding.

“Drew…Drew…” Continuing her assault on the young man’s shoulder with her finger, May continued to poke the young Ranger.

“May, May, May, May.” Drew repeated May’s name over and over again in response to the girl’s incessant poking. “What do you want?” A hint of annoyance came across in his tone but for the most part he was attempting to be good natured about this.

“We fell asleep.” May stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world…which it was.

Rolling his eyes, Drew stifled a groan. “What was your first clue?”

“Well…” May put a finger on her chin while it appeared she was seriously pondering the question. “I guess when I realized my arm was stuck under your shoulder.”

This time Drew was unable to hide his groan of annoyance. “You don’t say. Remind me not to use sarcasm with you in the future.”

A slight smirk played across May’s lips. “Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer, Drew. You realize part of being a Coordinator is acting. One must develop a sophisticated stage persona to win over the hearts of the audience and the minds of the judges.”

“Sure didn’t show in your recent contest in Rustboro.” Drew commented lightly.

“A. It has been a while since I last competed thanks to my over protective father and B. how would you even know?” A seriously perplexed May responded.

Smirking himself, Drew casually stretched his arms out before getting to his feet. “Easy I was there.”

“Stalker.” May muttered under her breathe.

“Says the one that pretty much kidnapped a guy she just met in the forest.” Drew responded.

“Erg whatever! You’re such a jerk!” May crossed her arms over her chest while glaring at the Hoenn Ranger. “Can you just see if that girl is awake yet?”

“Of course your majesty! I forget your legs are broken and you have suddenly become a mute in the last 30 seconds.” Drew performed an exaggerated bow to May before he left a fuming May to go find the Doctor.

“Stupid Drew! He is such a jerk!” May yelled out causing most of the patients and family members in the waiting room to turn and stare at the young girl.

“Er…Sorry…Sorry…I’ll be quiet…” May felt a blush rising to her cheeks due to the unexpected embarrassment that she had caused by her own hand. 

Luckily May was saved from further embarrassment when Drew returned and motioned May to follow him back to the room that the young girl was currently being cared for in.

“And here is the patient…now normally I wouldn’t allow anyone back here but seeing as you are a Hoenn Ranger…” The Doctor that has escorted the two back turned around and leveled the two with a stern expression. “Do not abuse my trust. If I find that girl in any condition other than perfect when I return I will have your heads. Understood?”

“Yes sir!”

“Aye aye.”

With a final nod to the two the Doctor left Drew and May alone with the girl. The room seemed to be the standard off white that the entire hospital was coated in. In a standard hospital bed rested a young woman who had squinty looking bright red eyes and long black hair.

“I must look a sight.” Lucy attempted a smile but it turned into a pained grimace. Multiple IV’s were run into her arm pumping fluid and synthetic blood into her body. “I heard from the Doc that I owe you two my life?”

“Well mostly this one.” Drew gestured to May while stepping further into the room and letting the door close behind her. “My name is Drew and this girl is May. She fished you out of the ocean believe it or not.”

Laughing a little while scratching the back of her neck, May followed Drew’s lead and came closer to Lucy. “Well I was kinda looking for a pokemon but ummm you appeared. We had some questions for you though...umm when we got you to shore you said something about Ash?”

“Oh?” Lucy raised an eyebrow. She had been through the Rocket Wars and had learned long ago not to freely give away information to strangers. Especially unconfirmed strangers after she had just survived an assassination attempt.

“Er yeah….you said you needed to get to Ash something about a woman killing him…” May trailed off. From the looks of it the woman wouldn’t be giving up any information very easily.

Lucy stared back at the younger woman with a blank expression on her face. True she needed to get to Ash before that murderous bitch could complete whatever her plan was which as far as Lucy could determine was an assassination attempt.

“Well m’am I am a Hoenn Ranger and I will need to file a report about this. I would appreciate a name to go along with the report. Of course I would appreciate it even more if you would share whatever information you have regarding Ash.” Drew finished his request with his signature smile and a slight flip of his hair.

‘Is this kid for real?’ Lucy pondered a slightly sour look crossing her face. “Look kid…well kids.” Lucy amended. “If you need a name for this report you can call me Lucy. As for any information I have no dice kid! You know how many traitorous Rangers I had to put down during the Rocket war kid? I’ll give you a hint it was more than the fingers I have on both hands.”

“Er…” Drew slowly backed away from the young lady. “Right…well umm…May all you.”

May also appeared rather hesitant to continue her line of questioning about Ash after that little tidbit of information but in the end her need for information on Ash outweighed her fear regarding the woman. “Well…umm you see I was traveling with Ash and Brock for a while. Then when you said Ash was in trouble…well I kinda got worried. You see he had kinda saved me a few times from ummm some bad people.”

Lucy’s eyes widened slightly at the statement. It was a known fact that Ash rarely traveled with anyone anymore but when he did it was only with Brock. After she had been assigned to help the pair she figured it would be an uphill fight with Ash over the arrangement. ‘This is suspect at best.’  “Ash doesn’t take on traveling companions but nice try girlie.”

“Now if you two are quite done…” Lucy made a gentle shooing motion to the two.

Sighing in annoyance, Drew made his way to the door. “Come on May we’ll just have to go ourselves. It is obvious we aren’t getting anything out of her.”

“Well…thanks for the chat I guess.” May huffed she was clearly annoyed by the dismissal. “Let’s go Drew I think he was heading to Dewford next.”

“Right well I suppose I can try and pull some strings to get use some flying types from the league. Of course with the flight we are going to have to either let them rest for a few days after a day of straight travel or see if I can get a relay system set up.” Drew attempted to comfort May since it was quite clear that she was upset over the less than stellar interaction with the girl.

For her part Lucy watched the two leave the room with a blank stare. With a sight of annoyance she laid back down in the bed and closed her eyes in an attempt to get some rest. There was little she could do for Ash at this time without her pokemon available and there was no way she was going to trust a couple of kids she had just met.

‘Stay safe out there Ash. I don’t know what the fuck is going on but stay safe. I’ll be there when I can.’ A slight smirk crossed her face. Brock would be so disappointed if he found out she was barely even concerned with him.

‘What really saved me though?’ She remembered floating deeper and deeper into the ocean. Her air was starting to run out and she was starting to drift in and out of consciousness. Right before she lost herself completely to the cold depths of the ocean she had suddenly felt her body seize up and she was pushed towards the port. In fact she probably would have been pushed right into the harbor if not for getting caught on May’s line.

Shaking her head, Lucy decided to give up on wasting her time trying to figure it out since she never actually saw what saved her. Sighing once more, Lucy gave up on her useless venture and let herself drift off to sleep.

 

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Route 105 – Nearby the Aqua Command Ship

A small speedboat stopped suddenly. The engine cut out a moment later. The younger man that was currently driving stared up at the giant ship they had come upon. In the distance Erik could make out three pokemon disappearing across the horizon towards Dewford Town.

“What happened to that ship!” Erik cried out upon coming within visual range of the Team Aqua command ship. The giant ship was listing visibly to one side with visible holes melted through the hull near the ship’s water line. There were more holes torn through the ship near the deck from what the young Aura Guardian could make out.

“A fight that’s for sure laddie.” Aurion commented, the gruff old man narrowed his eyes before pointing towards some of the holes towards the top of the deck. “See that there!”

“Yeah?” Erik looked to where Aurion was pointing but did not really see anything special about the holes made near the deck.

“Those holes were made by someone using Aura. Whole lotta power behind them as well.” Commenting gruffly, Aurion let his Aura free. Expanding his senses outwards to the giant ship, Aurion’s eyes took on a blue sheen when he opened them again.

Taking a careful look over the ship, Aurion soon found what he was looking for. Around the edges of the Aura created holes was a pulsing red sheen not the blue one would have normally expected. Then again when you were on the hunt for a user of the red Aura this is exactly what you wanted.

Closing his eyes and letting his senses retreat from the ship, Aurion felt a smile coming to his face. “He was here Erik. Confirmed for sure your Red Aura user was on that ship and caused quite a bit of that damage.”

A surprised look crossed the young man’s face. Erik never expected it to be this easy to find someone that had not activated his Aura since the Petalburg Woods. They were about to pack it in after losing the trail in Petalburg Woods but a tip had gotten them onto the water route towards Dewford Town.

“What do we do now?” Erik wondered aloud regarding their situation. Even from afar Erik could see the Aqua members streaming across the ship releasing their water and flying pokemon before hoisting tow lines down to the pokemon.

Aurion despite loving a good fight knew that the numbers were clearly not in our favor. “We move on laddie. Our quarry has moved on from here but likely hasn’t gone far. We’ll find’im yet.”

Nodding a little, Erik moved back to the boat controls. He was about to get going when a figure suddenly yelled out from the side of the boat. “Help! Please help!”

In a flash Aurion was over to the side of the boat helping the young woman over the railing. With a final grunt the older Guardian finally managed to get her safely onto the boat.

Standing there dumbly, Erik just stared at the young woman his eyes being drawn down to her ample chest that was accentuated by the wet clothing that clung to her body.

“Laddie! Get the lass a towel or blanket before she freezes to death.” Aurion ground out in annoyance.

“Right away!” Erik popped open the nearest storage bin and scrounged around before finding a spare towel shoved way in the back.

By the time he returned to the shivering girl and Aurion the man was already pressing her for information.

“So you were aboard the ship Lass? Aurion absently took the towel from Erik and pressed it around the girl’s shoulders.

Nodding a little, Duplica shivered while drawing the offered blanket closer. “I was on a chartered boat with two other people when we were caught in a hurricane. When I woke up I was alone in a cell in the ship over there.” Duplica still dressed as Lucy for the most part gestured to the wounded ship.  

“I just…just managed to get out. There were dead bodies everywhere.” At this point Duplica started crying to really sell the story of the poor innocent girl that through no fault of her own became a prisoner.

“Ah come on now Lass…dun’t be crying.” The grizzled man gently patted the young woman’s back in a comforting motion. “It’s all over you’re safe with us.”

‘Of course I am safe with you, dimwitted fool.’ It was really a stroke of luck that Duplica had come upon the pair but the moment she realized who was in the boat she knew she could get a ride out of the two with a sob story.

“How did you get out M’am?” At this point Erik had worked his way back to the pilot’s seat and had started the boat. Their quarry wasn’t here anymore as Aurion had confirmed and they would be on the hunt once more.

“Well the one man that was captured with me, well ummm.” Duplica played up the image of the uncertain young girl that was completely defenseless. From her previous interactions she knew the Aurion would want to protect her and Erik the dimwit would believe anything said if you had enough conviction fake or not. “He went into a rage and started destroying everything. I don’t understand how but he was firing energy from his fists. Even worse though if he got his hands on someone pokemon or human alike he tore them apart.” At this point she fell back into hysterical tears.

“Get us rollin’ Erik, they appear to be busy for now but if they are attacking passing vessels there is no need to risk our necks.” Aurion made his way over to the radio while Erik got the boat moving.

Flipping the C/B radio on, Aurion radioed the nearest Harbor that would possibly have a force large enough to investigate the issue. That of course being Dewford Town. “Dewford Harbor Master this is Sea Wing do you copy? Over.”

Aurion frowned when the only response was static. Switching to a new channel Aurion attempted to reach out again. “This is Sea Wing to Harbor Master do you copy? Over.”

A breathe of relief was exhaled from Erik when he finally heard the Harbor Master respond.

“This is Dewford Harbor Master, we acknowledge you Sea Wing please proceed, over.” The voice on the other line crackled.

“Dewford, we have a partially disabled ship at coordinates 103 longitude and 196 latitude. We have a young woman on board our vessel that managed to escape imprisonment. She reports that the ship is attacking smaller vessels and taking hostages, over.” Aurion spoke over the C/B.

“Noted Sea Wing, please proceed to Dewford Harbor with prisoner, over.” The Harbor Master responded. 

Aurion and Erik shared a look that clearly wondered why the Harbor Master would call the escapee a prisoner.

For her part Duplica let a small smile cross her face for just a moment. She should have never doubted her master when he said that Dewford would be completely under Team Aqua’s and thereby his control by the time she got there.

Shaking his head, Aurion disregarded the odd phrasing by the Dewford Harbor Master. “We are heading for Dewford now to bring the young lady to safety, over.”

“Acknowledged Sea Wing, party will be waiting for you upon arrival at the Dewford port, over.” The Harbor Master responded.

“Anything seem odd about that Aurion?” Erik ventured while keeping his eyes up and scanning for any potential threats now that they were up to speed.

“Time will tell, time will tell.” Aurion muttered more to himself than responding to Erik’s question.

 

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Dewford Town – Ice Beam Bar – 2 weeks later

Ash spun in the chair quickly while laughing aloud. A large glass of beer spilled over its edges during the spin. “Thi’s is tha’ best Brawdleyy!” Taking swig of the Dewford brewed beer, Ash chugged the remaining beer left before he set the glass down…empty.

“Hahaha! I told ya Ash! Another for my friend here! He’s had a hard few weeks.” Brawley grinned before taking a rather conservative sip of his own beer.   

“A gentlermen ansz a scholar, sir.” Slurring over his words, Ash laughed aloud at a joke he never bothered vocalizing before going to work on his next glass of beer.

Taking another sip, Brawley nodded along with Ash before gently pressing the young man. “So Ash you came in with some pretty wicked injuries care to share my main man?”

“Injuriejuries…right! I got blasted…blasted by a Blasoise!” Tittering in laughter over his joke, Ash found himself downing another large helping of the beer in his hand that had replaced his empty beer.

“Too right bro, still some wicked damage…seriously who’d you piss off?” Brawley frowned in annoyance. He had been loading the man up on alcohol all night after befriending him during his hospital stay and he still had gotten nothing useful out of the man.

Taking another swig of beer, Ash slammed the mug down before standing up and leaning over the bar counter. “Hey! Hey! Beer man! I need some more! And don’t be stoggy abouts it!”

 The moment the bartender set down the beer in front of the clearly inebriated man, Ash had dropped his empty cup and taken up the new glass of beer.   

Sighing in annoyance, Brawley realized he would have to try another approach. Archie wanted to know what the hell the Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar was doing in Hoenn and recruit him if possible. Of course if tactics of persuasion failed, well Dewford was a fully operational Team Aqua facility.

“So what brings you to Dewford? Our pristine beaches or our beautiful babes?” Brawley threw in his poor excuse for a joke not that it particularly mattered with how loaded Ash happened to be at this point.

Taking another large gulp of the beer, Ash set the large glass back down. “Jus’ needs ah badge! Hey wait!” Turning from the beer, Ash half slumped over in his seat while attempting to eye up Brawley. “Your tha gym liter aren’tcha?”

Nodding a little, Brawley studied his drinking buddy. He could not really say he knew where Ash was going with this. “Yeah remember I told you that at the poke center when they brought you in.”

“Ah Ha!  So you addmiss it!” Ignoring that the fact Brawley had just confirmed he was the gym leader, Ash stumbled out of his chair before pointing towards the gym leader. Of course his aim was off and Ash was pointing towards a random woman further down the bar. “I’ll take you in! Righ’ here righ’ now! Poke’mon bazzle fa’ the bounce badge!”

A confused look crossed Brawley’s face. ‘Bounce badge…Mew he is gone. I don’t think I am going to get anything out of him tonight.’ Patting Ash on the shoulder, Brawley managed to get a smile on his face despite his personal feeling. “How bout a rematch later, Bro. You are in no condition to fight. In fact I think you better be gettin yourself to sleep. You need me ta walk you back?”

 “Naaahh I goss it.” Waving off his new best friend, Ash downed the remainder of his beer. “I’ll toss ta ya lata Brossey.”

“Brawley, Bro…seriously you sure you’re a’ight?” Brawley gently questioned.

“Jus fin!” With another laugh at his own messed up word Ash gave a final wave before exiting the bar.

“Really Ash…what in all hell are you doing out here at the bar!” Cynthia exclaimed the moment she ran into Ash exiting the bar. “Gary and Brock have been looking for you for hours!”

“Aww Hey bootiful…what brings ya out may way?” Ash giggled a little at his pronunciation of beautiful.

Cynthia sighed in annoyance before grabbing the younger man by the ear. “You really are quite the jackass when you are drunk.”

“Jus’ sezsin wha’s in my hurt. You’re the bess!” Laughing again, Ash half fell onto Cynthia with the tug on his ear. Luckily the young Champion had been expecting it to happen at some point and managed to half catch him enough so that Ash could stay on his feet mostly. “Hey..tha hurt!”

“Glad to hear you can still feel some pain. Do you know how long I was looking for you?” Cynthia grumbled a little trying not to blush too much due to holding the young man close to her. Drunk as he was she could admit that was a handsome looking man.

“I thou only Brock and Gary were lookin fer me.” Ash mumbled while trying to regain his balance. Unfortunately he couldn’t keep himself upright on his own and ended up falling back against Cynthia. “You know you’re really soft.”

Sighing a little in annoyance, Cynthia managed to keep from blushing. “Really Ash, you think I would stand idly by while Brock and Gary have a conniption fit over your disappearance.”

“Guess tha makes sense.” Ash muttered while allowing himself to be led along by Cynthia.

“So not to be a broken record but mind explaining to me why you are completely hammered?” Cynthia questioned as she led Ash along out of the bar district.

“Browsey invited me ta go…basz manners to decline.” Ash mumbled back to Cynthia before clutching his stomach suddenly. The alcohol was not settling well at all. “Erg…I thin…I thin…I’m gonna.”

“OH FUCK!” Cynthia screamed in surprise when Ash literally let loose right at her feet. It was only due to pure luck that none of Ash’s leavings splattered onto her. Growling a little, Cynthia glared at young man who was currently doubled over and she was currently keeping him from falling into his own mess. “A little warning would have been nice Ketchum.”

“Sorry…” Ash muttered before he was stopped as he dry heaved one more time and emptied out the remaining alcohol that was still in his stomach.

Sighing a little, Cynthia managed to get Ash back to a near standing position and led him a little further down the nearly deserted area to a vacant bench. “Here let’s sit you down so you can rest.”

Once Cynthia had gotten Ash sitting on the bench, she gave him a slight poke in the chest to make sure he was still responsive. “I’m going to run over to that convenience store and grab some stuff to clean you up. Rest here alright?”

Ash could really do nothing more than nod before watching Cynthia disappear from his line of sight. He really was feeling quite awful and couldn’t do much other than sit there trying not to throw up again.

In what was only probably a few minutes but what felt like hours to Ash, Cynthia had returned. Ash was interrupted by his attempts not to throw up by her lyrical voice.

“Here you go.” With that Cynthia pressed a bottle of mouthwash and an opened roll of paper towels into Ash’s lap.

Ash numbly took the items before wiping his mouth of the remaining vomit. “Thanks.” With that Ash took a swig of the alcohol based mouth wash. Swishing a few times followed by a quick gurgle, Ash spit out the mouth wash before repeating twice more to get the taste out of his mouth.

“No problem. You feeling any better?” Cynthia sat back down next to Ash and gently rubbed his back. There had been more than a few times in her life where she was the one doing the vomiting.

“A lil.” Ash muttered, in fact he was starting to feel worse now that he was sobering up a little bit but there wasn’t much he could do about it. “Sorry you had to find me like this.”

 “So you went out drinking with Brawley and you ended up going a little overboard.” With one look at Ash’s face that still appeared a little green Cynthia decided to amend that statement. “Or a lot. Any reason for the celebration and how come I wasn’t invited.” A slight smile played across her face to show she was joking with him.

“Nah…just trying to forget I guess.” Ash muttered while holding his head in his hands.

“Trying to forget what?” Cynthia inquired. “Was it…umm what happened on the Team Aqua ship?” Cynthia ventured while trying to keep her tone light. Last thing she wanted was to make it appear that she judged him for his actions. There were a few things she had done in her past that she regretted.

“Not Aqua I’m not saying I wanted to kill the people on board but they were far from innocent…but by Mew I have ended so many lives.” Ash raised his head up and stared down at his hands. Once more they were sheathed with aura blocking gloves. Gary had, had the foresight to bring a spare pair along with him from Pallet.

Cynthia placed a hand on his shoulder and brought him into a gentle one armed hug. “You know I have killed more than a few people in the past. Pokemon and person alike to protect Sinnoh.”

“I wish I could say that I was always justified like you.” Ash shot a weak smile at Cynthia. “I’ve killed…a lot of people Cynthia and I don’t know if I will ever be forgiven.”

“Ash…”

“You know I am a Ranger from Kanto. I am sure Paul has mentioned me more than a few times.” Ash commented his voice coming out a little mechanical in tone.

“Well I have been traveling with him for a while.” Cynthia attempted to lighten the mood with a little bit of humor. “He of course wouldn’t come help find you. Said to leave well enough alone and like a little lost puppy you’d return when you got hungry.”

Smiling a little, Ash couldn’t help but chuckle. “Paul and I didn’t really hit it off when we first met but I started out as a Ranger to help stop Team Rocket…but I’ve stayed a Ranger in an attempt to atone for my sins.”

For her part Cynthia sat there in silence but shot the young man an encouraging look she felt it best to let him continue on if he wanted to get something off his chest and he needed someone to listen she would gladly be his sounding board.

“I…I killed so many people at Cinnabar. I didn’t care who was in my way. I killed women, children and men without regard. It was that day that I earned the title of the Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar. I can’t bring them back but I can maybe atone a little for what I have done by making the world slightly better by removing those that would take advantage and kill without remorse.” Ash continued on before finally looking towards Cynthia. “How I truly became the Burning Nightmare though…the reason I will forever continue my journey of redemption…”

 

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_Cinnabar Island – Rocket Wars_

_Ash grunted before he managed to completely rip the grunt’s arm out of her shoulder socket. The woman for her part screamed in pain before succumbing to the sweet release of unconsciousness. With a grin, Ash grabbed the leg out of the air of one of the few remaining grunts that had attempted to get him while his guard was down._

_“Too slow!” With a push of Aura, Ash punched a hole through the man’s leg before releasing the man to wither on the ground screaming in pain as his life blood slowly leaked forth from the giant hole in his leg._

_Pikachu let off another bolt of lightning. The electric rodent directed the bolt of lightning through a nearby Hitmonlee before dodging out of the way from the remaining Marowak’s bonemerang attack. An iron tail into the bonekeeper pokemon’s stomach sliced the pokemon open like a thanksgiving ham._

_With a flick of his wrist, Ash got rid of the most recent layer of blood that was coating his hands. “Well Giovanni I’m so sorry but I think I broke them all.” Ash attempted a pitying look but with the sadistic grin that was plastered across Ash’s face it ruined the attempt._

_“Insolent little Brat! I have bigger things to deal with than your temper tantrum!” Giovanni smirked despite the fact his grunts and their pokemon were all but dead. “Though I suppose you have earned the right to my undivided attention for the moment, Ash. I did put this story line in motion afterall. I’ve killed your mother and killed your lover. Though I will admit your little Leaf was just a bonus. Now we shall we finish this act?”_

_Ash’s eyes started to glow red and without any warning he leapt at Giovanni intent on eviscerating the bastard. The knife he had in his hand slashed across open air just missing the Rocket Leader._

_Giovanni for his part jumped back with little concern that the young man just barely missed gutting him with a knife that he had obviously picked up from one of the downed grunts._

_“Now now if you want to fight me you will have to go through my pokemon first. I admit I only have two on me but it appears you only have your Pikachu. I suppose it will just have to be a one on two battle?” Giovanni proposed pointlessly to Ash because a moment later he released his Rhydon and Nidoqueen._

_“Go Nidoqueen and Rhydon. Your target is that Pikachu!”_

_“Pikachu!” Ash cried out. A moment later the electric type dashed to Ash’s side. The once yellow electric pokemon was now a dark brown color throughout from all of the dried blood that covered his fur._

_“Chuuu.” The little electric rodent’s cheeks sparked with electricity in a threatening manner despite the fact that both pokemon would be immune to his electrical attacks._

_“My my such a vicious looking little rodent you have Ash.” Chuckling, Giovanni pointed towards the Pikachu. “Rhydon turn that little Pikachu into slurry! Drill Horn! Nidoqueen back it up with poison sting.”_

_“Don!” Rhydon yelled out before it started to charge Pikachu. As the giant drill pokemon gained speed it’s horn started to drill at a higher rate of speed. Nidoqueen stepped to the side before launching a wave of poison needles towards Pikachu._

_“Pikachu agility into double team!” Ash growled out._

_Pikachu faded out of existence for a moment as he ran towards the Rhydon and a moment later multiple copies of Pikachu were running across the field._

_A few of the copies were taken out by the poison needles but it left more than enough to leave Rhydon confused. The drill pokemon stopped in its tracks unable to determine which one to target._

_“Now Pikachu! Flash!”_

_Before Giovanni could respond the area was lit up by Pikachu overloading his electrical pouches and creating a giant blast of light._

_Nidoqueen roared before raising her arm up in an attempt to block out the light. Rhydon being right in front of Pikachu had little chance to respond and took a full blast of light to his eyes. Giovanni was in much the same condition as his Nidoqueen._

_“Damn brat!” Giovanni was attempting to blink away the bursts of light that kept interfering with his vision. “Nidoqueen use incinerate to cover yourself! Rhydon use earthquake to keep that damn Pikachu away!”_

_Nidoqueen drew in a large breath before she spewed forth a stream of flames and waved her head about spreading the fire in a random pattern attempting to discourage an attack.  Rhydon on the other hand brought a heavy foot down on the ground causing tremors throughout the area. A few of the less stable buildings shook and random bits of metal and glass started to cascade down the sides of the building._

_“Now Pikachu! Iron tail into the ground in front of Rhydon!” Ash yelled out._

_Without questioning his trainer, Pikachu jumped into the air to avoid the earthquake and spun once in the air. Pikachu’s tail gained a metal sheen to it and once it was glowing silver in color, the electric rodent brought it down right at Rhydon’s feet._

_A grin flashed across Ash’s face. “Now Pikachu use grass knot!”_

_With a sadistic grin Pikachu used his power to create shoots of grass that came forth out of the ground where his iron tail attack had created a large crack in the concrete. Between the giant hole that Pikachu had created and the other cracks that Rhydon had inadvertently created with his attack, giant shoots of grass wrapped around Rhydon’s feet._

_The giant drill pokemon roared in surprise before it was brought down by the super effective grass attack._

_“Rhydon get out of there!” Giovanni for the first time became concerned over the outcome of this fight. His vision was just starting to come back and he could just make out Rhydon’s large form trapped on the ground by the grass shoots. “Nidoqueen flamethrower on Rhydon. Clear that damn grass off!”_

_“Not quite yet Giovanni! Pikachu put a damper on the son of a bitch’s plans with rain dance.” Ash directed his Pikachu. The yellow rodent by this point had gotten itself free of the ground and started to perform a random little jig that brought storm clouds overhead._

_A moment later a steady stream of rain started to fall. The effect was twofold and unfortunately for Rhydon the rain caused Nidoqueen’s flamethrower attack to fizzle out along with some of the smaller fires in the area. The grass knot attack though flourished with the rain causing the grass to grow quickly and wrap Rhydon further into a cocoon._

_Rhydon screamed in pain as the grass started to find chinks in its armor and spread deeper and deeper into its body. Red blood started to flow out of the drill pokemon as the grass continued to grow and expand from within. The grass started to break open the Drill pokemon’s skin._

_“Rhydon.” Giovanni stared helplessly as his drill pokemon started to making a choking sound. The grass had made its way into its lungs._

_Giovanni had gained his vision back and he could only watch on helplessly as the grass continued to grow under the steady rain and continued to tear his beloved drill pokemon apart. The grass kept splitting the pokemon open removing his armored skin from his body. The grass roots continued to seek foothold into the pokemon’s body._

_“Very good Ash very good indeed. Overcoming a double type disadvantage and killing my beloved Rhydon. Careful now though like Icarus you are flying too high too close to the sun.” Giovanni nodded to Nidoqueen who had fully recovered from the flash attack. “Now Nidoqueen let us squash the little rodent. Focus blast.”_

_Before Pikachu could get out of the way a high speed bullet of condensed energy impacted against Pikachu’s side._

_“Pika!” The electric mouse cried out in surprise from the vicious attack._

_“Now it wanted to play in the rain let’s see if we can’t slow it down with a little snow. Blizzard!” Giovanna directed._

_With an almighty roar Nidoqueen summoned a blizzard. Cloud air rushed in aided by the rain dance still in effect. The water that had pooled on the ground started to freeze over. The rain still coming down turned to freezing rain and started to stick to Pikachu’s fur. The little rodent started to slow down from the added weight._

_“Pika!” Pikachu cried in surprise as it attempted to move freely but found that it’s limbs were starting to lock up._

_Ash grit his teeth together trying to find a way out of this unfortunately Pikachu didn’t have any fire attacks to melt the ice and the electrical attacks at his disposal were useless. “Crap.”_

_“Now let’s finish this with a hyper beam to the head. Nidoqueen use your claws and tail to dig in and keep from sliding then blast it.” Giovanni shot Ash a dark smile. “So now I have taken away your mother, your lover, and your starter. If Gary Oak was here I believe I would have the complete set. Actually after this I think I will stop by Pallet Town. Their blood is on your hands Ash, you were too weak to protect them. What will you do now and how can you possibly ever ask for their forgiveness?”_

_Tears started to stream down Ash’s face and for a moment the aura that had been hovering just on the edges seemed to disappear. The Aura that he had called forth had started to fade away but in a moment it returned. It returned with vigor and where a moment ago Pikachu had felt nothing but a small touch coming forth from Ash now it burned bright…brighter than a sun going supernova. Red aura began to permeate the air around Ash and Pikachu._

_“Pikachu…return!”_

_Giovanni paused for a moment confused by the request. That was until he saw the giant ball of energy forming in Pikachu’s paws. The moment of realization was too late. Nidoqueen had released her hyper beam but not before the power of return met Nidoqueen. The two beams of light struggled for a moment before the hyper beam exploded right in front of Nidoqueen’s mouth._

_The drill pokemon let out a gurgling scream but could not fully articulate it’s pain. The explosion had wiped out the pokemon’s lower jaw and tongue. The pieces of bone left hanging where it’s jaw once hung instead exposed a gaping hole. Blood started to rush down Nidoqueen’s chest from the fatal wound._

_“Now Pikachu thunderbolt right into her open mouth. She may be a ground type but she can’t ground an open gaping hole!” With a demonic grin the red eyed Pikachu let loose a bolt of red lightning. The bolt played across Nidoqueen’s body some of it being diffused by the pokemon’s natural ground affinity. More than enough though entered the exposed and unprotected gaping hole that used to be her mouth._

_The ground type let out a screech as the electricity fried her from the inside. Steam started to rise up out of her throat, nose, and ears. Eventually the electricity caused her eyeballs to pop in a bloody shower of gore._

_Giovanni started to clap his hands lightly. “Good…good Ash very good. You are brutal and effective. I can tell you are letting go of those silly ideals you once upheld. You really can’t call yourself a Ranger anymore. A Ranger helps people and pokemon alike. They ease suffering and end pain. You though.” With a gesture towards Rhydon who was still mewling pitifully as it continued to drown in his own blood and then to Nidoqueen who was still smoldering and retching blackened blood from its gaping wound. “You are dealer of death. You may claim to stand by your ideals but when push comes to shove well I guess in nurture versus nature. Nature wins.”_

_“What do you mean?” Ash’s eyes still held a red tint to them and he could still feel the rage coursing through him just underneath the surface ready for him to grab and harness to use for his will. The only thing stopping him from his revenge was curiosity._

_Laughing aloud, Giovanni slowly stepped around the remains of Nidoqueen. On his way by casually pushing the giant smoldering mess over, letting it fall to the ground. “You see Ash let me tell you a story. It isn’t a surprise but I guess Delia never had the perseverance to tell you.”_

_“Don’t you fucking talk about my mother you son of a bitch.” Ash growled out as his fingers clenched and unclenched into fists._

_“I believe mother fucker would be more appropriate in this instance Ash.” Flashing the young man a grin, Giovanni ran a hand through his hair. “You see when I was a young man before I took over Team Rocket I visited a small town…I believe you grew up there. It was called Pallet Town.”_

_Ash’s eyes widened in realization but he found himself glued to the ground unable to move._

_“I came across a young girl there. Oh she had a temper and wouldn’t even talk to me.” A cruel grin spread across his face. “I broke her though Ash. I broke your mother like a wild stallion. Oh she put up a fight but in the end. I succeeded.”_

_With a grand gesture towards Ash the leader of Team Rocket continued his story. “I suppose I wasn’t surprised to learn later she was pregnant. I left her so badly beaten that she was in a coma for three months from what my sources say. By the time she awoke and found out…well she was a good girl and kept you. Of course once I found out I had a son I became interested. You see she was so good I knew she would raise you to be nothing like me. So the question came up…nurture versus nature. Could she weed my instincts out of you?”_

_Giovanni raised a finger. “At first I thought she had succeeded but then…I decided to see what would happen if I truly broke you. Could you stick to your ideals and continue your valiant cause. You surely loved to play the hero. Riding in like a white knight to save the day. But could you continue to hold to your ideals would Delia shine through if you were pressed. So I paid a little visit to your mother. Granted your arrival did ruin round two of our fun but it achieved my goals. I knew I had pushed you but not far enough. By killing Leaf though…well you have become a son I could be proud of!”_

_Ash shook with rage at the comment. “Fuck you asshole! Fuck you I am not your son!”_

_“Oh perhaps not in your eyes for I am sure Delia told you wonderful stories of your “father” off saving the world no doubt. No, No my boy. It is your actions. Your words may scream Ranger but my boy your words tell me you are well on your way to replacing me.”_

_“FUCK YOU!” With a scream of rage Ash threw himself towards Giovanni. His red aura encompassing his body as he immediately started to land hits on the well-dressed Rocket Leader._

_Giovanni immediately found himself on the defensive. Taking hits and rarely able to return the strikes. “Good Ash show me, show me you are ready! Become the nightmare that you have sought to destroy!”_

_Ash blocked one of Giovanni’s quick jabs with his left forearm before bringing his leg up and around into Giovanni’s side._

_The older man grunted but managed to bear most of attack onto his right bicep by ducking down just enough to take the kick._

_Ash not to be deterred dropped his foot down on the back of Giovanni’s calf forcing the man to the ground._

_“You want a fucking nightmare. I’ll give you a fucking nightmare. I’ll burn you alive!” With a scream of rage Ash channeled his aura into a burning fire. With a roar he brought his fist into Giovanni’s face._

_The older man rolled across the ground from the impact of the punch. A smoldering burn mark left across most of the right side of his face._

_Grimacing in pain the older man gently rubbed his burned skin but quickly drew back with a sharp hiss. “Quite a punch, quite a punch indeed.” Giovanni picked himself up off and the ground and casually brushed off his ruined suit._

_With another jump Ash brought his hands down in a hammer fist attempting to slam Giovanni into the ground._

_Rolling out of the way just in time, Giovanna brought his leg out in a vicious kick to the face that jerked Ash’s head to the side at an almost unnatural angle._

_The aura kept Ash from having his neck snapped but the hit still hurt like a son of a bitch. With a growl he pushed his aura in his hand and grabbed Givoanni’s retracting foot. “Let me repay some of the abuse you put my mother into you fucking asshole!”_

_Ash kept the leg trapped in his hand and started to release the burning aura into Giovanni. The smell of burnt flesh permeated the air and began wafting throughout the area. Ash grinned as Giovanni struggled to get away and instead just held on tighter. He could feel his hand burning through the upper layers of skin and zoning in towards muscle._

_Hissing in pain, Giovanni managed to rally and kicked Ash in the chest with his free foot. There was enough force behind his attack that caused Ash to lose his grip._

_Stumbling back Ash just managed to get an arm up to block the incoming foot before a second kick could land._

_“Spirit Ash you certainly have enough of it.” With a laugh the leader of Team Rocket pushed through the pain and landed a third vicious kick to Ash’s face. Watching his son roll across the ground from the assault, Giovanni did not let up this time. He casually walked over to the recovering young man. Ash was up on his hands and knees before the sharp toe of Giovanni’s boot impacted with his exposed stomach._

_Grunting in pain, Ash was lifted off the ground before he found himself laying on his belly. All of his limbs were haphazardly splayed out. “Ah!”_

_Seeing to the boy, Giovanni delivered another vicious kick to Ash’s side. The young man once again was lifted off the ground. Giovanni smirked before bringing his heel down on the back of Ash’s neck. “Tut tut my boy you shouldn’t have let up. You always…always press the advantage or else you end up lying on the ground.”_

_“Now!” With each word Giovanni punctuated it by grinding his heel further into Ash’s neck. “Learn Your Place!” Satisfied that Ash was unable to move any further at the moment, Giovanni slowly squatted down bringing further pressure to the back of Ash’s neck. “You my boy have grown that is true but you have not grown to surpass me. Though vicious you are not quite cunning enough to beat out your old man. I guess you must have a little bit of Delia in your after all.”_

_“I’m nothing like you!” Ash managed to ground out in between wheezing gasps of breathe. With the full weight of Giovanni on top of him there was little he could do other than wait for an opportunity._

_Giovanni eased his weight off of Ash’s neck a little. A small smirk crossed Giovanni’s face before he ground his heel violently back into Ash’s head pushing Ash’s face into the ground. “Yes…Yes you are. You can deny, deny, deny but I have seen you in action. You remind me of well me.” Laughing aloud, Giovanni made a critical error by lifting his foot off of Ash’s head just a little too much. “Now son I have more important manners at hand. I have a Moltres to contend with and that thrice cursed Dragon Master and his pet dragons.”_

_Feeling the pressure leave his neck, Ash threw all his weight into disrupting Giovanni’s balance. The moment that he was free, Ash rolled onto his back in time to catch Giovanni’s fist in his hand. With a grin he let his aura flow freely. Giving into the rage and anger he had suppressed for years the grief of losing his mother. He channeled his flaming aura into Giovanni’s hand._

_“Such power!” Giovanni managed to yell out. The aura was pushing its way up his left arm. He realized too late what was happening. His own son was burning the blood in his veins frying him from the inside out. The ring on his left hand had already melted to his fingers and his fingers had turned black. “Stop Stop!”_

_“No WAY!” With a final growl Ash pushed all of the power into the aura. Ash watched with a sense of horror mixed with satisfaction as Giovanni started to turn black._

_“Son.” A smile crossed Giovanni’s face. “I’m so proud…so proud. You will carry on…in my stead…rule the world.” With a final choking sound the leader of Team Rocket coughed once more before he finally succumbed to the boiling sensation in his blood._

 

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A/N: Well I will end it there for now. Next chapter will be Cynthia and Ash talking some more. I believe I will expand on Brawley’s plan and maybe have a fight scene or two. Other than that enjoy R&R if you feel like it and I think I will be bringing the poll down in another chapter or two.

 

 


	16. Dewford Town - Justified

A/N: I think I may be taking a break from new chapters for a little and go back to re-editing the few remaining chapters I need to so everything is prettied up. I am also going to start putting the pokemon that Ash has on hand at the start of the chapter. Mostly so I can keep it straight since I will be doing some rotating out soon. I think I will be rotating Snorlax in and moving Gengar out next chapter. Best read in 3/4ths story width.

Ash’s pokemon currently on hand:

Charizard

Arcanine

Pikachu

Sceptile

Lucario

Gengar

Chapter 16 Dewford Town – Justified

Dewford Town – Enroute to the Dewford Gym

Ash skirted around the edge of the small town of Dewford, planning on making his way right to the port area where Brawly’s gym was located. The last thing he needed at the moment was to run into any of the townspeople he just didn’t have the time to talk to them. At some point during his run Pikachu had finally decided to make an appearance. Ever since they had arrived on the island the little electric type had been off visiting the local pack of Pichu, Pikachu and Raichu that inhabited the forests near the port.

“Hey buddy good to see ya. Have fun with the others?” The black haired Ranger shot a smile at his small Pikachu, never missing a beat he continued his run towards Brawly’s gym. He couldn’t put a finger on why he felt the need to run but the further he got the more unsettled he felt. Something was going on and he didn’t feel too confident about leaving the others behind now not that there was much he could do.  

“Pi Pikachu!” The little rodent responded in the affirmative having no issues with keeping up with his trainer. Pikachu let his ears rotate back and forth to keep an ear out for any threat. He didn’t know where his trainer was going but in his long time with Ash it normally meant trouble.

The pair finally broke through the trees and came to a screeching halt. “What the fuck?” Muttering to himself, Ash could only stare in disbelief at the giant ship slowly coming into port. The giant ship had a visible list to it and appeared to have been through one hell of a fight. Even though he had been unconscious during their escape the others had described the ship in enough detail for him to confidently say it must be the Team Aqua command ship. “But what is it doing here…”

“Beautiful sight isn’t it.” A voice interjected causing Ash to spin around to see the source of the voice.

Chuckling a little at Ash’s surprised face, Brawly absently flattened the Team Aqua cap on the top of his head. “The pride of the Team Aqua fleet the Draken, of course you already knew that being a guest from what I understand.”

“Brawly…I thought.” Ash’s head was spinning a little. From his time in the Rocket Wars he was used to fighting friends that defected or becoming friends with old enemies but he prided himself in a good judge of character. Somehow Brawly had managed to gain his trust and never gave a single hint of his true standings. “Please tell me you aren’t actually working for Team Aqua.”

“Ash, you are standing on Team Aqua’s home base and naval port. Everyone that lives on this island is either part of Team Aqua or is a supporter of our mission.” Brawly looked over his friend with a slightly sad smile across his face. “I really liked you Ash but…well I’m sorry to betray your trust but we had the house bugged. We heard everything.”

“Why would you join them Brawly! You’re a good person you don’t belong with these people.” Ash gestured towards the ship while a wary look crossed his face. A quick glance around though showed that the two appeared to be alone for the moment. Not that Ash was counting on that to last much longer but if he could perhaps convince Brawly to help him they could alert Steven and get off this island together.

A disappointed expression crossed Brawly’s features. “Come on now bro…we’re not bad people…sure there are a few bad eggs. I was tasked with convincing you to help us. When we heard the Burning Nightmare was in Hoenn we knew we could topple the league with your help. Team Aqua just wants what is best for Hoenn’s people.”

“The best for Hoenn maybe but what about the other regions! If you heard everything then you know your precious Team Aqua plans on killing millions with their plans!” Ash growled out while his one hand started to drift towards his pokeballs.

Shaking his head with a disappointed look at Ash’s slow reach towards his pokeballs, Brawly responded in a slightly sad voice. “No one will die if they just listen to us…I don’t want to hurt anyone but sometimes it is necessary.”

“I’ve lived through the hell of the Rocket Wars Brawly, I am tired of fighting but I will keep fighting to keep people like you out of power.” Ash growled in anger before jutting his finger out at Brawly. “It is people like that allow these wars to continue. Men and women that believe they knew better than their neighbors and play the role of the vile shepherd. You gather people with promises and lies, convincing them that you have a right to rule over others and that you know the way!”

“What right do you have to question my actions? Have you not killed thousands! You call me the vile shepherd but you are nothing but an oppressor of the people! Our cause is righteous and I will help lead Hoenn into greatness! If you refuse to stand aside and allow our destiny to be fulfilled then you will feel the true power of Team Aqua Our waves of power will roll over you!” With a yell Brawly drew a pokeball out of his pocket and released the pokemon inside. “Go Hariyama!”

The giant arm thrust pokemon appeared in a blast of white light. Upon taking form it immediately took up a battle stance. “Yama!”

“No one knows the way Brawly…and anyone that claims that have the answer to our destiny is a liar. Every person must find their own path and not let people like you lead them astray.” A tight smile crossed Ash’s lips before he threw forth his own pokeball. “Go Gengar!”

The fact that Brawly paled at the sight of Gengar was enough to confirm that the overconfident ass had not trained his pokemon to counter ghost type pokemon. Ash shook his head a little in disappointment at the lack of foresight to create a well-rounded pokemon. Glancing off to the side, Ash checked the progress of the command ship making its way into port.

“Fine then! Hariyama start out with wide guard!” Brawly ordered.

With a grunt the arm thrust pokemon closed its eyes for a moment and numerous rocks lifted off the ground and floated about the fighting type ready to jump in the way of any long range or wide area effect attack.

Chuckling a little, Ash pointed towards Hariyama. “feint attack and follow it up with a shadow punch.”

“Gen gen gen gar.” The ghost pokemon’s sadistic grin faded out along with its body. A moment later the ghost type appeared behind Hariyama and hit it in the back with a faint attack before following it up with a shadow punch to the head.

Hariyama crashed to the ground from the vicious attack but managed to roll out of the way from further damage.

“Hariyama!” Brawly cried out with concern before a look of relief crossed his face. “Give them a taste of surf! Follow it up with a taste of thunderpunch!”

The arm thrust pokemon managed to get back up before using its arms to draw a giant wave up from the nearby ocean and bring it crashing down towards Ash and Gengar.

Ash managed to jump back and away from the crashing wave but Gengar was still directly in the path of the attack. A moment too late Ash ordered Gengar out of there.

Unfortunately the arm thrust pokemon rode the wave down and right into Gengar and thrust his arm out crackling with electricity. The water still covering Gengar conducted the electricity of the punch and caused the Ghost to shriek in pain.

Growling out a command, Ash took charge immediately upon seeing the predicament. “Gengar psychic get it into the water.”

The ghost pokemon grunted before a pink glow appeared over the arm thrust pokemon and a moment later it was lifted up and away before Gengar forced it into the nearby ocean.”

“Che…pointless waste of an attack Ash. Do it again Hariyama surf and follow up with another thunder punch to end this fight.” Brawly chuckled a little when he took a look at the Gengar. The increased electrical attack’s power from the water all over the ghost pokemon appeared to have done the trick and the ghost was hurting for sure.

A grin crossed Ash’s face when he heard Brawly’s orders. Just what he wanted. “Alright Gengar! When Hariyama is at the peak of the surf attack I want you to use Thunder!”

The ghost pokemon let loose a sizzling bolt of lightning but both trainer and pokemon were surprised when the rock’s from the earlier wide guard defense move absorbed the lightning.

“Shit.” Ash muttered in annoyance. He had forgotten about the defensive move that Brawly had started out with.  “Gengar hang in there!”

With a grunt the ghost pokemon managed to hang in there through the combination attack that Brawly seemed to be so fond of.

“Now payback Gengar!” Ash commanded with a sadistic smile. He watched as a black aura appeared around Gengar before it shot up into the sky before coming back down and seemed to envelop Hariyama completely. The arm thrust pokemon let out a scream of pain before fainting from the damaging attack. With the damage taken earlier and the fact that Gengar was on his last legs the payback was especially effective.

Both trainers recalled their pokemon one due to how tired it was and one due to a complete knock out.

“Well Ash…I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less of the Burning Nightmare. I wonder though if that is the extent of your power. If you can barely defeat me then what chance do you have against the real power behind Team Aqua. Perhaps they were wrong to try and recruit you.” Brawly conjectured with a condescending smile before sending forth his next pokemon. A giant Machamp taking form in front of Ash and Brawly before it unleashed a roar in challenge.

“Do you really want to see my true power then?” Ash queried while raising an eyebrow. “Fine then I will show you the reason I earned that title.” With a flick of his wrist he released Arcanine into the battle. The legendary pokemon letting loose a deafening roar that reverberated throughout the forest and port. Flocks of Pidgey took wing at the sound of the roar.

“This will end poorly for you Ash. I train all of my pokemon to ride the waves. They are able to bodyboard right into your pokemon and Machamp will roll over your fire types.” Shaking his head in disappointment, Brawly decided to end this battle quickly. Once he took care of Ash he planned on taking the Ranger out and delivering him to Archie. At this point Brawly wasn’t sure if it was worth the effort to bring back such a weak trainer. From the reports that he was given from the Draken he was expecting so much more instead he was underwhelmed at best.

“Alright Machamp let’s end this with a surf and thunderpunch combo. Put the dog out of its misery.” Brawly waved in the general direction of the Arcanine clearly not as concerned as he originally had been at the start of the fight.

Ash rolled his eyes a little at the predictable attack. “Acranine…extreme speed right at Machamp.”

“Tired of battling and want to end this Ash?” Brawly mocked while crossing his arms over his chest.

A devious smile crossed Ash’s face. Machamp was just starting to catch the crest of the wave and was almost in position. The moment the giant four armed pokemon had itself exposed to Ash’s next attack the order went out. “Now turn that into aerial ace!”

“WHAT!” Brawly cried in surprise.

Machamp was equally surprised when the lion dog pokemon burst off the ground and barreled right into the superpower pokemon. Ash watched the two pokemon fly through the air before they both started to fall. Machamp hit first clearly disoriented from the unexpected attack which caused the surf attack to dissipate. Arcanine landed gracefully on top of the super powered pokemon before receiving a nod from his trainer.

“Machamp get up!” Brawly cried when he heard his pokemon cry out in pain. A moment later the cries quieted and when Arcanine stepped off the super power pokemon the lion dog’s muzzle was smeared with red across his jaws.

“Good work Arcanine, back to my side.” Ash called out as he watched with a dispassionate gaze at the dying Machamp. The pokemon was making a futile attempt to stem the bleeding from the crunch attack that had ripped out most of its throat. Blood was flowing down its chest and the giant super powered pokemon made one last gasp before it expired.

“Machamp!” Brawly cried out in distress before looking over at Ash. Shaking his head in rage the fighting specialist had, had enough. “What kind of monster kills an opponent that is clearly down!”

“I’ve learned over the years that an enemy left alive is one to come back and haunt you later.” Ash responded before nodding to Arcanine.

“What do you mean by that…” Brawly responded hesitant now, Ash had changed completely from the friendly guy at the bar.

“Arcanine.” Ash nodded to Brawly. While Brawly had been distracted by Ash the lion dog had started to run towards the fighting specialist. The man only had enough time for his eyes to widen before the giant lion dog leaped into the air and brought him down to the ground.

Arcanine tore into the man a moment later his teeth tearing easily through the man’s arms that he brought up in an attempt to ward off the giant dog. A sickening crunch reverberated through the area after Arcanine got his jaws across Brawly’s throat. Snapping it like a twig, the lion dog pokemon pulled back to admire his work. The man’s eyes were glassy in quality still wide in fear. The man’s entire throat was ripped out and the back of his neck was attached to his torso by only a small thread of skin with the neck clearly broken.

“Good boy Arcanine.” Ash commented as he came up to inspect the dead body. Squatting down next to the dead body, Ash patted the ashen cheek of the former gym leader of Dewford Town. “Sorry buddy, I really did like you. Maybe if this had been a few years ago I would have tried to make you see reason. I’m no longer the idealistic young man that thinks he can save the world. Unfortunately an enemy shown mercy normally returns again to stab you in the back.”

Ash absently returned Arcanine to his pokeball before standing up again a grim smile on his face after observing the Aqua command ship appeared to have docked. He had to find the others and fast. Perhaps if he had been alone he would try and take down the island but he had to think ahead and he needed to get Cynthia and Paul off the island so they could warn Steven. He was interrupted from his thoughts by Pikachu suddenly hoping up onto his shoulder and nuzzling his neck in an attempt to comfort his trainer.

“Cha!” Pikachu called out attempting to get his trainer’s attention back to the present.

“I know I know Pikachu. No matter how many times I have to do it, it is hard to put a friend into the ground.” Absently rubbing Pikachu’s head a little, Ash glanced once more at Brawly’s still body. At this point the bleeding had mostly stopped flowing out of the open wound in his neck and started to harden around the tattered edges of the remaining skin around the wound. Sighing slightly he couldn’t help but regret his actions. Perhaps in another life they would have been friends. “Come on buddy we gotta link up with the others.”

“Pika!” Pikachu glanced back at the rapidly cooling corpse with a certain amount of interest before the sight of the dead Machamp and trainer disappeared from his view as Ash ran further into the forest towards the pokemon center.

 

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Dewford Town – Port

“Shit…” Erik muttered looking back to see the giant command ship bearing down on them from the sea. The damn ship had been following them the entire way to Dewford Town and every time they informed the Harbor Master they were assured that Dewford could handle it. “I really hope Dewford is prepared for a real fight.”

“Don’t worry laddie. They should have alerted the League by now. We’ll just have to hold until then.” Aurion commented from the rear of the ship. The hard worn battle veteran finally looked towards the harbor now that Erik was bringing the ship in. No one was there to greet them at the dock. They had specifically informed the Dewford Harbormaster that they were almost there. Something wasn’t right here. “Careful laddie…careful now sum tin ain’t right.”

Erik nodded a little as he maneuvered the boat into one of the smaller slips off to the side. The younger guardian brought the motor to a dead stop and quickly climbed down the ladder to start tying the ship to the slip’s dock. He stopped by momentarily to call down to their passenger. “Debbie we’re here!”

“Alright!” Duplica called out keeping herself from chuckling too much. She couldn’t believe how easy it had been. The two guardians were tracking the Burning Nightmare and were headed right to Team Aqua headquarters. She got herself above deck and smiled a little as the two calmly tied the ship down to the dock. Taking a look around and quickly spotted their greeting party. It appeared they pulled out all the stops.

Erik paused suddenly upon feeling a pulse of dark Aura. It wasn’t like before when he felt the rage and anger coming from the Red user. Instead it felt dark…corrupted almost like a black sinking hole that one could never claw his way out of. Upon looking up though his eyes widened in surprise.

Aurion realized where the Aura was coming from first though. “Ghul! Wha ta ya duin here! Wh ta ya duin wit them!” The grizzled Guardian wasn’t sure what the woman was doing with this group but her Aura was off something clearly wasn’t right.

The Aqua grunts arrived at the ship most with weapons in hand. The leader appeared to be a grizzled man in his mid-forties.  A burly type that despite his age was clearly in shape and would be a tough opponent. “Greeting Guardians, welcome to Dewford Town. Now raise your hands in the air or we’ll mow you down.” He nodded his head towards two of the men holding crossbows that were each aimed at one of the Guardians.

“Wha tis tha meanin of this!” Aurion growled out.

Duplica laughed aloud as she easily stepped off the boat and onto the deck. “Simple you fools, welcome to the home base of Team Aqua.” Gesturing with a flourish she deftly stepped to the side and swept her arm to let the two take in the port.

 Upon taking a good look the two Guardians realized that it indeed seemed to be a military operation as she claimed. There were men unloading supplies and what were clearly barracks by the port. Men were training with weapons nearby in the fields with pokemon. Some were even training to take down larger pokemon using grappling hooks to climb onto the pokemon and simulate a killing blow with a knife or other weapon before starting over again.

What Duplica had been expecting was the sudden crossbow being leveled in her direction until she realized they didn’t recognize her. Laughing a little, Duplica smiled a little at the commander. “Now now…no need to be so quick with those Crossbows. I am Duplica…agent zero of Team Rocket. These Guardians were so kind as to escort me here but I believe my Master will be very pleased to make them personal guests.”

“You’re with them!” Erik exclaimed in surprise. He glanced between Aurion who currently wore a steely expression and Duplica’s condescending smile as if somehow Debbie would say it was all a joke.

“But of course. Thanks for the ride by the way…I am certain you must remember me though.” Upon seeing both Guardians turn to her in confusion, Duplica suddenly dropped her voice to hit Ghul’s octave. “Aura Guardian Ghul reporting for duty.”

The two Guardians barely restrained themselves from action only stopping at the cocking of the crossbows in the hands of the Aqua greeting team.

“Enough all of you. And you are no longer welcome here. Orders were just handed down to bring any known members of Team Rocket into custody.” The grizzled commander announced to the girl.

“Oh…is that so? Master will be much displeased that you would try to harm me.” Duplica responded while nodding ever so slightly to two of the four men standing behind the commander that were beside Ghul.

The commander leaned in towards the girl with a superior smile. “Well he ain’t makin the rules anymore sweetheart. We just found reason to believe that Team Rocket may no longer be looking after the best interests of Team Aqua.”

“Oh…” Duplica nodded a little before getting down on her knees and offering her two hands out together for the leader to handcuff. “Well…that is unfortunate. Your lack of faith in Team Rocket’s plans is most unfortunate.”

The leader chuckled a little while shaking his head. Just like he thought the girl was just a scared little thing. People lived in fear of agent zero but it appeared she was just a little spoiled brat that was no more a threat than a fresh trainer. “The only thing that concerns me is my next paycheck.”

Duplica nodded a little and let the man come right up to her. With a charming smile she fingered the small knife cupped inbetween her two outstretched hands. The man made his final step and brought out his handcuffs and was about to bring them down onto her wrists.

She struck in that moment. Bringing the knife up into the man’s groin, Duplica used the power of her legs to drive the knife deep into his intestines. The man howled in pain from the surprise attack. He could only stare at the blood rapidly spreading from his crotch before Duplica round house kicked him off the peer.

The four remaining Aqua loyalists were quickly taken down by the two Team Rocket loyalists that stood by Ghul . The Ranger for her part used her Aura to blow one of the remaining crossbow wielding men off the port and into the sea. Her aura was neither blue nor red in color. Instead it was an inky black.

Duplica turned to the two Aura Guardians a frown on her face. Master would want these two but if operation Kecleon was comprised he would want a report immediately. She had to get to a communications center and see what Aqua actually knew. If it was merely hearsay she would let Koga smooth it over but if Aqua was actively planning on moving against Rocket the operation would have to be launched now. “I would suggest you two get out of here. I have no time to deal with you for now so count yourselves lucky.”

With one last glance she took off towards Ghul and the two remaining Rocket loyalists. The two men were just dumping the last man off the deck before the four disappeared into the complex maze of the port before a second squad was sent to check on the first squad.

“What just happened.” Erik muttered to himself still in shock. Ghul was not working with Rocket and Debbie wasn’t Debbie but a high ranking agent of Team Rocket.

Aurion grunted upon seeing a second squad coming down to their section of the docks. “They jus gave themselves ah plausible cover.” By leaving the two Guardians alone with no bodies and blood stains all across the dock, the second group would probably shoot first and ask questions later. This would give the group time to contact their Master. “Come on laddie we best be goin. I dun know how we’re gettin off tha island but tis certainly not by sea.” Nodding back towards the incoming command ship, Aurion climbed out of the boat and only waited long enough for Erik to get in motion before he started running into the complex maze of the port.

The two Guardians cringed when they heard the alarm going up behind them.

 

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Dewford Town – Edge of town

“I knew something like this would happen. It always does when Ketchum is involved.” Paul commented unhappily before issuing an order to his Aggron. “Metal claw! Cleave that Nidoqueen in two!”

“Well he always makes life interesting.” Gary commented a cigarette half hung from the corner of his mouth. He had just lit up when they were intercepted by Team Aqua members. The men and women of the what appeared to be the Dewford Police requested their presence for some “questioning” when they declined well it quickly turned into an all-out brawl. “Quick Umbreon use assurance on that Nidoqueen.”

The moonlight pokemon faded out of view before appearing behind the Nidoqueen that was already hurting from the metal claw. Without giving the enemy a chance to recover Umbreon glowed pink before biting into the back of the Nidoqueen’s neck. A moment later the larger pokemon tumbled to the earth knocked out completely. Umbreon rode the downed pokemon down to the ground before casually stepping off.

While Gary and Paul handled the left side, Brock and Cynthia held down the right side. Unfortunately the numbers were starting to become a threat. The moment one pokemon was taken down more and more trainers appeared to take their place.

“Steelix! Earthquake!” Brock called out to his giant steel snake. So far they hadn’t run into any fire type luckily and he had been able to use Steelix to keep most of the smaller pokemon at bay with wide range attacks. Turning his attention back to the burly man that was rushing him, Brock leaned to the side to avoid the incoming fist. Unfortunately they hadn’t had a chance to arm themselves and it appeared the team charged with bringing them in tired of the indirect approach through subduing their pokemon.

Cynthia weaved under another man before bringing a knife she had relieved from an earlier opponent across the man’s neck. A grim smile crossed her face upon seeing that her attack had cut right through the man’s throat. With a vicious kick to the knee she brought the lanky man down to his knees before ending his misery with a quick stab through his left eye. She brought the knife back out in a fluid motion and with a flick of her wrist cleared the small blade of blood.

“Garchomp! Knock out their air support. Flame Thrower!” Cynthia commanded before moving to assist Brock with the two men that had decided they needed to take the rock specialist out.

The mach pokemon growled in confirmation before letting loose a jet of flames into the air. The mach pokemon swung its head about to create a pattern of flames in the sky. Most of the bird types afloat were either caught in the initial blast and roasted alive or moved higher up and out of range. The dragon roared a challenge to the heavens while the smell of burnt flesh started to permeate throughout the air.

The dragon was about to start another attack when it was hit with a blast of dragon breath. Roaring in pain Garchomp turned to meet its tormentor. The mach pokemon growled out a challenge upon seeing the Dragonite that had landed across from it.

The man probably had not been expecting an attack from behind. Unfortunately for the burly man that was currently trying to crush Brock’s head between his hands he was unaware of his surroundings. Cynthia made a running leap and landed on the man’s back. A quick line up and a brutal shove took the knife up into the back of the man’s neck and right into his brain case. The attack was so quick the man had nary a moment to scream. One moment he was trying to kill the man below him the next moment he was dead.

With a grunt Brock managed to push himself out from under the man and get himself back onto his feet. “Thanks Cynthia.”

“No problem.” Cynthia mentioned as she grunted in effort while trying to pull the knife out of the back of the man’s head. With an annoyed huff she braced her one foot against the man’s shoulder and with a final pull dislodged the blade. A frown crossed her face when she found that she had broken most of the blade off in the man’s head.

Brock chuckled a little at seeing Cynthia’s distress. “Sorry about that…guess you’ll have to find a new one.”

“Such is life.” Cynthia responded before turning her attention back to Garchomp. Her eyes widened a little at the sight in front of her. The ground dragon was trading vicious blows with a Dragonite. “Well I better take charge of this battle I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

“No problem. I’m going to try to hold everyone back on my end.” From a quick assessment he could tell Steelix was starting to get tired. Sure they could continue to try to take down all comers but eventually they would have to retreat or risk capture. The only problem was retreat to where. If Aqua was holding the island the only way off would be out of the port or by flight. A frown crossed the rock specialist’s face. He didn’t want to risk flying so it would have to be by boat. Brock glanced over to see how Gary and Paul were doing. With a yell he got their attention.

“Guys we’re going to make a move towards the port. We can’t stay here forever! Make a hole and Cynthia and I will cover the rear guard.” Brock yelled over the din of battle.

Gary growled while taking another puff of his cigarette. Umbreon had been called back in favor of his own Golem. The rock pokemon had started a roll out attack and had managed to take out more than a few pokemon by crushing them. The once brown rocks of his body were turning a reddish black. The only problem was that Team Aqua’s favoring of water types caused the pokemon to get nailed more than once by some super effective attacks. “Golem continue roll out use rapid spin to deflect those water attacks.

Paul had a similar idea to Gary and had switched over to his Electivire. The pokemon having a type advantage was doling out massive thunder bolts left and right. Glancing back at Brock he yelled back. “What about Ash and Brawly?”

“We’ll find them on the way if we don’t get out of here we’re going to become overwhelmed.” Brock called back as he and Cynthia started to draw closer together with Steelix and Garchomp covering their retreat with two massive hyper beam attacks.

“Fine.” Gary grunted before spotting a thinner line of opposition. “Golem! Roll out right over those pokemon and trainers by the road there!”

“Electivire use thunder storm to keep them on their toes!” Paul called out causing Gary to glance up at the unfamiliar attack. With a smirk Paul merely pointed up to the sky. Dark clouds were gathering overhead and a moment later numerous thunderbolts started to dance down from the sky and impacted all across the battle field. Few bolts actually struck but the consistency and mere threat caused an accuracy reduction as pokemon and trainers alike concentrated on keeping out of one spot too long. Those few that decided to stay in one spot were more often than not treated to a blast of lightning.

With the hole created and the opposing force currently trying to keep from either being crushed, electrocuted, or vaporized the four trainers managed to get out of the area. They only had a few minutes to get to the port before the current trainers recovered and they would be overwhelmed again.

“Get the fuck out of our way!” Gary growled while running right into an opposing trainer. He used his elbow to bash one of the men in the gut before backhanding him into the ground.

A quick move to the left avoided an untimely death by a crossbow bolt. Paul growled in annoyance before pointing out the target to Electivire. A moment later the man was nothing more than a smoking hulk. The group was about to make it to the port before their way was blocked.

“Fuck…” Brock muttered upon seeing the mega Blastoise standing there proudly with the Team Aqua admin standing nearby.

“How fitting, you guys are quite fucked.” Matt laughed aloud as he surveyed the challengers that his group had run into. He quickly identified them as the escapees from his ship. “If you give up now I may be inclined to let you live. Of course I could use some people to help repair the Draken. Any chance you would be willing to assist?”

Growling in annoyance, Cynthia raised her pokeball and returned her powerhouse pokemon. She could see that Garchomp was tired and would need some rest if she was to be used later.  With a flick of her wrist she replaced it with Spiritomb. The ghost/dark pokemon appeared with a swirl out of the small keystone rock that it projected itself from.

The others appeared to follow Cynthia’s lead with Steelix being returned for Ludicolo. To finally give himself a type advantage against the overwhelming majority of water types. Paul switched to Torterra to follow Brock’s thinking. Finally Gary replaced the worn out Golem with Arcanine. The fire dog appeared with a loud roar.

“Che so you little punks think you can take us all on. That’s fine.” Matt smirked when he saw the troops the group just escaped coming up behind them. The Team Aqua grunts wedged the group of trainers in from both sides. Effectively boxing them in with the warehouses of the port on either side but those options quickly disappeared as flying types dropped trainers off on top of the roof of the nearby warehouses.

He raised his hands and gestured to the pokemon that slowly started to grow in number. “Come now…lay down your arms now and we can stop this now before any of you get hurt.”

Paul glared at the arrogant asshole. “I don’t think so. Torterra…frenzy plant!” A moment later the giant land turtle stomped down and roots broke through the ground in a wife area. The pokemon and trainers of Team Aqua scattered under the attack.

The others wasted no time and started their own offensive strikes. Ludicolo followed suit with its own frenzy plant. Spiritomb used toxic attack to spray its victims with formidable neurotoxins. Some of the liquid hit trainers and caused some to stumble away screaming in pain while others ended up falling into the water of the nearby ocean in an attempt to get the away. Finally Arcanine hit one of the larger groups with a fire blast.

Matt growled in annoyance. “Attack you stupid fucks!” With that he started to turn the tide of the battle with his Blastoise. “Hydro cannon!” With a roar of acknowledgement the mega pokemon shot three blasts of water out. Two struck Spiritomb and one narrowly missed Arcanine due to the dog lion’s speed.

Following his lead the grunts started to turn the tide back in their favor. With superior numbers they started to harrow the sides of the trainers and one by one their pokemon started to fall. While the fallen pokemon were quickly replaced the trainers only had so many pokemon on them and the enemy kept growing in number.

“Cynthia we have to get out of here now.” Brock yelled out. He was already down to his last pokemon and unfortunately the bug steel was taking a pounding despite his high defense.

“I know!” Cynthia growled in annoyance. She too was back to Garchomp and has lost the rest of her pokemon or recalled them before they could be killed.

“Where the hell is Ash when you need him.” Paul growled in annoyance before directing his Electivire to assist Gary’s with another blast of combined thunder.

“Knowing Ash doing something stupid.” Gary muttered while absently throwing the used up cigarette to the side.

Matt laughed aloud when his mega evolved Blastoise caught Brock’s Forrestress with a powerful water gun attack. A frown crossed his features when he glanced at Cynthia and her Garchomp again. He realized who she was…the Champion of Sinnoh. “End her!” Matt growled out to one of the few men armed with a crossbow and pointed towards Cynthia.

Cynthia turned just in time to see a crossbow bolt flying towards her chest. She had no time to move and could only stare in horror as the bolt sped towards her chest. The others realizing the danger she was in cried out as they and their pokemon were too far away to help. Garchomp was currently locked in battle with a Feraligatr. She closed her eyes and awaited the impact.

/\  /\

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Dewford Town – Sat Nav Communications   

Duplica casually bumped the dead body off of the chair and let it fall to the ground. “Watch the doors will you gents.” She commanded before returning to her current work. Ghul stood behind her completely silent. The woman certainly had her uses and had easily cleared the room of the command staff.

A few minutes later she had connected with Rocket Central command and even better her Master. “Oh Master it is so good to see you!”

“Duplica.” The clocked man on the other man stated with a gravelly voice. “What are you doing at Dewford Town, explain.”

Sighing in frustration, Duplica’s voice took on a whiny edge to it. “I awakened Ash’s aura like you asked! He blew up most of the Draken and his stupid friend ousted my disguise so I had to jump ship. Then I” She was cut off by the Master though.

“Silly prattling girl, I care not for your failures to properly disguise yourself.” Master Ketchum leaned closer to the camera as if to stare into the young girl’s soul. “Tell me about Ketchum how did he fight!”

Duplica hiccupped a little. She was hurt by her Master’s abrupt manner of speech. Normally the man was quite gentle and patient with her but when he was in a mood even she knew not to complain. Starting again, Duplica lowered her voice by a few octaves. “He fought like a beast, Master. He was unstoppable and he almost sunk the ship. The only thing that stopped him was one of the mega evolved pokemon that they had on hand.”

“So he has chosen the path of the beast.” Master Ketchum mused more to himself than to Duplica or the others in the room.

“Sir…” Duplica ventured.

“Nothing…nothing to worry about. Continue to tail him but do not make it quite so obvious. There is no longer reason to be in his group. Now that I know the path he has chosen I know what my actions must be.” The cloaked man responded to her question. “Now if there is nothing else…”

“Wait!” Duplica cried before he could terminate the connection.

“My patience grows thin, do not waste my time child.” Master Ketchum responded with a slight growl.

She couldn’t help but shudder a little. At no point did she ever want to experience her Master’s ire. “Sir…they bugged the house that Ketchum was staying in. They’ve discovered operation Kecleon.”

“What!” Master Ketchum suddenly appeared interested in the conversation. “How did they come to find this and what is Ash doing on the island!”

“I don’t know sir! I just arrived but I just found the information on their computers here. Apparently they have had Ash and his friends here for weeks and Ash put together Koga’s plan this morning!” Duplica responded. “Team Aqua is currently engaging Ash and his friends at various points around the port at this very minute!”

“Erase the information. Scrub their computers child. Destroy all evidence at their base. Has it gotten off the island yet?” The cloaked man demanded.

Shaking a little in fright, Duplica quickly indicated it hadn’t. “No Master! Only a few of their top men know of it yet and a handful of grunts.”

Nodding a little, Master Ketchum leaned back away from the screen. “Kill them Duplica…use Ghul to find them and kill anyone with knowledge of our betrayal. We are not ready my dear, not yet. Kill them and then follow Ash and his friends. Call me immediately if Ash loses control again.”

“Yes Master.” Duplica bowed her head slightly before the screen went dark. She barely kept herself from sinking into the chair. A moment later though she managed to get herself back together and quickly went about following Master Ketchum’s orders. First thing was first though and she worked to erase any traces of the call she just made.

/\  /\

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Hoenn mainland – overhead

“Drew!” May called from her Swellow to be heard over the wind. She clutched the feathers of the bird pokemon a little tighter when the pair was buffeted by an unexpected gust of wind. “When are we putting down next?”

“There is a Ranger outpost a little South of Littleroot. We’ll make it there by nightfall and then we can switch out these Swellow and take whatever they have to Dewford Town.” Drew called back.

“What if they aren’t at Dewford Town?” May called back over the wind.

“We’ll have to wait until the pokemon recover and push on from there. Dewford Town doesn’t have a Ranger station. They shut it down for some reason.” Drew responded before gripping his bird pokemon a little tighter. Last thing he needed was to be blown off and die due to his inattention.

May sighed a little in annoyance. She had been hoping that they would be there fairly quickly but the Ranger’s relay team was rarely trained past the necessary level evolve to their larger form. Due to the low levels their speed was normally slow compared to a pokemon in a trainer’s care that constantly gained experience. Still it was faster than walking or car so she could complain. That and they did not have the money to catch a plane.

The two continued on in relative silence. May found her eyes traveling off in the distance towards where she knew Dewford Town to be. She could only hope that Ash would stay alive until they arrived.

/\  /\

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Rustboro City – Hospital

“Lucy.” Steven called out hesitantly as he opened the door after a brief knock.

“Come in Steven.” Lucky called out in slight bewilderment. She had not really expected a visit from the Champion of Hoenn. Her left eyebrow went up a little as she noted the two League Rangers that were accompanying the Champion. “What is this about?”

Steven smiled a little before nodding to the two Rangers. “I’m sorry Lucy but…such measures are necessary despite my misgivings. We will be putting you into house arrest until we can determine where you stand.”

“Where I stand?” Lucy queried the champion the confusion clearly showing.

A frown crossed Steven’s face before he responded. “Yes…I refuse to recognize Agatha as the Champion of the Kanto and Johto regions. I refuse to have a member of the rebellion traversing across Hoenn unchecked.”

Finally a look of concern entered Lucy’s face at the new. “Agatha! But I thought Lance was Champion what has happened?”

“Agatha seized control of Indigo and has ousted Lance from power. The Dragon Master recently contacted me to inform me.” Steven responded. “Currently the known League loyalists have been evicted from their gyms and are in hiding.”

“I am not in league with Agatha!” Lucy spat out the name with hatred. She had never been a fan of the ghost mistress and that she would raise an army against Lance was unbelievable.

“Be that as it may…Lance has informed me that while the Frontier Brains are not actively assisting Agatha they have refused to help him. We can’t prosecute you for not being involved but I can’t allow you the freedom to leave at the moment.” The ever present frown that had been with Steven throughout the conversation lifted slightly. “I understand though that you are trying to link up with Ash though?”

“Yes I was sent over to link up with Ash and Brock.” Nodding a little, Lucy silently found herself cursing Scott for his damnable ambition if she knew her boss and she did, the man was probably hoping to swoop in and knock out both sides. She couldn’t exactly blame Steven for his feelings but at the same time she couldn’t help but be a little annoyed with the entire situation.

“I will personally attempt to contact Ash and get this situation resolved. Last I heard he was heading to Dewford Town. I doubt I can catch up to him but my guess he will turn up at Slateport next. Once you are well enough we will travel there together. As long as the pair vouches for you, you will be free to go. Acceptable?” Steven queried.

“Yes, thank you Steven.” Lucy acquiesced to Steven’s plan as she had little other choice. “The Doctor’s informed me I should be well enough to leave in another week.”

“Very well.” Steven stated before turning towards the door. “I shall return in a week.”

“Till then.” Lucy waved once before Steven and the two Rangers who had stood behind Steven the entire time in complete silence departed from the room. A moment later she saw Steven disappear down the hall through the windows sans Rangers. If she were to guess the two were now posted outside her room. With a slightly annoyed sigh she settled back into bed. It appeared that she would see Ash sooner than expected.

A/N: Well cliffhanger for the fight in Dewford. Next chapter will be the last chapter for Dewford and we will move onto the journey to Slateport which may not even require an entire chapter. Then we should be in Slateport for the remainder of that chapter. I don’t think much will occur there other than some character development and maybe some expansion of Ash and Cynthia’s relationship. Depending how far I carry it Slateport could turn into a two chapter arc. Anyway I will have a poll up for who May ends up with so please vote. Any questions thoughts or feelings please review. Thanks again for putting up with my continually slow updates and incessant riddles. Hopefully in a few chapters more of the mysteries will be resolved. Thank again for reading!


	17. Dewford Town - Iron Fist

A/N: You know guys I put Dawn up there as an option on the polls kinda as a joke. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised so many of you are interested in a Dawn and May relationship but it is going to be annoyingly hard to work that into the story. Still if that is what you guys want I promise to somehow work that in…somehow. Anyway if you care who May ends up with check out the poll on my profile and vote. Other than that read and review. Once again 3/4ths is the best reading view.

Ash’s pokemon currently on hand:

Charizard

Arcanine

Pikachu

Sceptile

Lucario

Gengar

Chapter 17 Dewford Town – Iron Fist

 

Dewford Town – port area

The bolt stopped less than an inch from Cynthia’s face by some form of telekinetic power. The crossbow bolt still glowing blue abruptly turned itself around before it was propelled into the throat of the man that fired the shot.

Matt glanced at the dying corpse of the man with interest.  The man that was struck attempted to stem the flow of blood from the giant hole in his throat from the bolt to little effect. Crimson rivulets ran down the Aqua grunts neck and stained the black and white shirt with the red liquid. “Huh…so they have a psychic type…powerful at that.” The admin muttered before he looked back to the small group of trainers in an attempt to identify which one stopped the attack.

The remaining grunts who had witnessed the attack turned around on one of their own were suddenly hesitant to attack the trainers. None wanted to experience a blade or other weapon redirected into their throats or a pokemon attack from their own pokemon redirected into them.

“What the hell is up with that?” Gary queried to his companions. The young Doctor also attempted to locate the source of their assistance.

“I don’t know but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.” Cynthia responded in a slightly shaky voice. No matter how tough you were a brush with death had an effect on everyone. Luckily Cynthia was able to shake herself out of it a little faster due to the amount of near death experiences she had in her short life. “We need to make a final push to the docks if we want to get out of here.”

“Aye lass then let us help ya out!” A voice called out from one of the warehouse tops. The giant bear of an Aura Guardian had just finished off the last grunt that stood on the warehouse before he released his pokemon. “Go Conkeldurr! Create a path with Pillar Strike!”

“Durr!” The large fighting type landed in the midst of the Aqua grunts and their pokemon that blocked the path of Gary and the others.  The moment it landed it swung the giant stone pillars that it held in each hand into the largest group of pokemon and grunts. The fighting type sent the enemy pokemon and grunts spinning away from the sheer force of the attack. The closest pokemon and grunts were practically disintegrated into a mist of blood, flesh and bone that sprayed both the survivors and Conkeldurr.

The younger Aura Guardian shot a shaky smile at the group. His hand was still raised and pointed towards Matt and the man that fired the crossbow bolt. Young as he was in his training his ability to manipulate objects from a distance created a massive power drain but Aurion had never been able to master any kind of far range manipulation. “Please we’ll hold them off.”

With a shaky hand Erik released his ever faithful Meinshao. The martial arts pokemon appeared with a graceful bow to the opponents that it was about to engage in mortal combat.

“Meinshao…cover the four trainers and their pokemon in their retreat. Start an aura sphere barrage.” Erik called down to his faithful pokemon. Despite the protest of his weakened body he managed to get back onto both feet from his kneeling position. A satisfied smile crossed his face upon seeing the blasts of aura that were randomly exploding across the field of battle.

“Move!” Paul growled before grabbing Brock to shake him out of his stupor. Gary and Cynthia were already behind Conkeldurr.

The order from Paul got Brock into gear and he followed behind the purple haired trainer. The group’s last pokemon retreated with their trainers. Most looked worse for the wear with Garchomp appearing to be in the worst condition since it had taken most of the hits being a close combat pokemon.

“Now get yerselves outta here.” Aurion ordered before taking a moment to duck under a hydro cannon blast from the mega Blastoise. “Ha ya have ta do better than that!”

“Garchomp sweep them with a Hyper  Beam!” Cynthia ordered before turning to face the battle scarred Aura Guardian trusting her pokemon would follow her orders without supervision. She called out to the Guardian to get his attention. “Pull back with us! We can all make it to the dock!”

Erik just shook his head before he found himself dropping to the roof of the warehouse to avoid a blast of water from one of the Aqua pokemon. Despite Conkeldurr’s wide spread pillar attacks eviscerating any enemy coming into range the giant pokemon was only able to block so many water attacks with the pillars it carried. Meinshao also was starting to tire from both the aura sphere bombardment it was keeping up and the constant ranged attacks it was forced to avoid. “No ma’m we are Aura Guardians it is our duty to stop anyone that wishes to destroy the stability of Hoenn.”

“Besides child.” Aurion responded to her offer while ducking to the side to avoid a viciously cold ice beam attack. “Hard ta put a measure on human life but a Champion is surely more important than a Guardian.”

“Once Ash gets here we can all fall back together!” Brock argued before directing his Forretress to fire off a Zap Cannon attack into a squadron of water pokemon that were making ground on their position.

“We don’t have anything to counter whatever that monstrosity is.” Paul responded while pointing at the giant Blastoise before pushing himself up against the wall to avoid a water gun attack that came down with little actual pressurization due to the distance it was fired at.

“They’re right Cynthia.” Gary took Cynthia’s arm. He was ready to drag the Sinnoh Champion along with him in retreat if he needed to. “We don’t know where Ash is or if he’ll show up we gotta pull back.”

“Cynthia let’s go!” Paul yelled before turning his attention back on the battle. Despite the Hyper Beam from Garchomp and the Zap Cannon from Forretress ravaging the lower end Poliwag, Seel, Shellder, Krabby, and Octillery that the Aqua grunts had in spades it was the higher level Poliwrath, Kingler, Slowbro, Lapras, and Gyarados that were starting to appear along with a few Slowking and Kingdra that convinced Paul it was time to get going while the going was good. He was no coward but he had survived long enough to know when to withdraw.

“Fine! But let’s give them a fighting chance.” Cynthia declared before she turned to her Garchomp. “Fire a Draco Meteor into their front lines.”

The large dragon acknowledged the command with a deafening roar that brought most of their opponents to a momentary pause. Garchomp glowed blue for a moment before large purplish comets started to fall from the sky into the front line of Team Aqua. Cynthia watched with grim satisfaction as the comets fell into the pokemon with varying degrees of effectiveness. A Gyarados merely roared in annoyance as the comets bounced off of its strong hide while a Squirtle screamed in pain when one of the comets cleaved off an arm at the shoulder that resulted in a spray of blood. A Slowking managed to deflect most of the comets but a Slowpoke bleated in pain when a comet dropped directly onto its back smashing it into the ground.

Gary and Paul nodded together before directing their respective Electivire to battle together once more. “One last Thunder right in the middle!” Gary and Paul yelled at the same time.

The twin columns of lightning came down on the wounded pokemon from the Draco Meteor attack. In one fell swoop the survivors were fried which finally put them out of their misery. The stench of burnt flesh started to waft over the battle field. Some of the pokemon on the flanks of the attack stumbled away screaming in pain. Superheated rocks and remains of the dying pokemon at the center of the blast flew out and hit their allies. Skin exposed to the super-heated material bubbled and cracked apart as the pokemon hit attempted to rid their bodies of the superheated material. A Wartortle fell to the ground half of its face burnt shut from a Shellder’s tongue landing on it.

“Forretress fire a layer of Toxic Spikes and then return.” Brock yelled out to his bagworm pokemon. The bug steel type had just enough time to shoot out a layer of spikes on the ground before it disappeared in a beam of red light.

“We’ll wait five minutes at the dock. If you aren’t there by then we’ll take off.” Gary shouted up to the Aura Guardians before he recalled his own pokemon and ran after the other three already making their way down towards the docks.

Matt growled in annoyance at the interference of the two unknown interlopers it was clear they weren’t actually psychic since there had been no follow up attack and they weren’t using Psychic type pokemon. He couldn’t risk any of them getting away though so he had to kill them quickly. If anyone managed to alert the League, then Dewford Town would be obliterated under the power of the League. “Punch through them! Blastoise rend their defenses asunder! Pin point Hydro Cannon!”

“Toise!” Blastoise hunkered down to provide a stable base before aiming all three of his cannons at Conkeldurr before he let loose three torrents of water into the fighting type. Conkeldurr attempted to block the water with the pillars it carried but the pressurized water drilled through the stone pillars before causing them to shatter in the muscular pokemon’s hands. That was the opening that the other pokemon were awaiting. A Slowking took point and quickly used a Psybeam to send Conkeldurr reeling back.

“Push that Slowking back Meinshao! Close Combat!” Erik yelled out. Meinshao was quick to follow orders and closed in on Slowking while it was busy with Conkeldurr but before Meinshao could get to Slowking it was blasted by a stream of pressurized water sending it flying back into Conkeldurr.

“Laddie…tis time for ya ta go.” Aurion grabbed Meinshao’s pokeball and recalled the knocked out pokemon with a beam of red light before he shoved the pokeball into Erik’s hands.

Erik stared down at the pokeball in momentary surprise before he turned to Aurion. “No way you need my help to fend them off!”

“Nay laddie. Someone needs to report what happened here to the Aura Guardians. Tell Riley of what happened here! They need to know of Ghul and this operation. If we both die Hoenn may fall! Now get down to the ship and take off with those four. Now GO!” With a push Aurion sent the young Aura Guardian stumbling towards the edge of the roof furthest from the battle.

 Not a moment later the older Guardian dropped off the roof and ran to the aid of his Conkeldurr. Aurion raised a shield of pure Aura and held back the numerous attacks from connecting.

Erik looked back one last time to see his mentor and his Conkeldurr start an offensive strike to keep the Aqua grunts back. “I won’t forget you Aurion…” The younger Guardian whispered before he jumped from the roof of the warehouse. The moment that he landed he was off to catch the ship off of Dewford with the knowledge that when he reported this to the council they would make sure Dewford burned.

When it was clear that Erik had made his way from the battlefield, Aurion drew his sword with a smile. “I may not be able ta stop ya but I’ll give ya one heel of a repair bill. Conkeldurr hold ‘um back to the end!”

Conkeldurr roared in acknowledgement right before a Gyarados crashed into it. The giant snapping jaws attempted to rend the flesh from Conkeldurr’s arms but the fighting pokemon managed to shove the giant water flying type back before hitting it with a Focus Punch that sent it reeling away. A Wartortle replaced the recovering Gyarados, the small turtle latched onto Conkeldurr’s arm with a bite attack and wouldn’t let go.

Aurion’s sword was driven through Slowking’s head right before the royal pokemon could mount a follow up psychic attack on Conkeldurr. A satisfying crunch was produced when the blade infused with Aura pierced the pokemon’s brain case. Without pausing the blade was withdraw sliding out with brain tissue and fragments of the pokemon’s skull. A wicked grin fell over Aurion’s face. The art of war and the drums of battle always had called the Aura Guardian far more than his compatriots and he let the Aura guide him in his movements.

Closed eyes allowed the Aura to completely take over and guide him. Without hesitation he withdrew a foot to the left to avoid another blast of the Hydro Cannon attack. His blade was brought across in a wide arc and cut through a Quagsire’s tail thereby cancelling out the Aqua Tail attack about to be brought down on him.

Conkeldurr fell to the ground with a giant fang through his stomach. The Gyarados roared in pain over having it’s fang forcibly removed which provided the fighting type enough time to pick up a piece of its broken pillar. Not a moment later it used the sharp edge of the pillar chunk to kill the Wartortle still attached to it by driving the substitute blade into the shell and cracking it open. The moment the shell was cracked the Wartortle released itself from Conkeldurr. Unable to do anything the Wartortle cried out pathetically as it’s shell continued to crumble into pieces and it started to lose both organs and blood. It finally died when the shell crumbled completely and it’s insides rushed out like water from a compromised dam.

Unfortunately Conkeldurr fell a moment later to a Cloyster. The bivalve managed to get its shell around Conkeldurr’s head while it wrestled with Gyarados again and smashed the fighting type’s head in by clamping its shell together. The water ice type opened its shell with a sinister smile which was made downright demented by the blood, skull, and brain matter clinging to the bivalve’s insides. What was left of Conkeldurr’s head was little more than a small bit of neck and smashed in skin. Eyes gruesomely popped out of the pokemon’s head which left the left over skin appear to be an empty Conkeldurr suit.

A cry of rage left Aurion’s throat when he felt Conkeldurr’s Aura disappear as if a candle was snuffed out. One moment the fighting type was struggling and the next moment he was gone as if he had never existed. Without thinking the bear of a man crashed into the line of Aqua grunts. His blade wiped about as if it were the wind lopping off limbs or cutting through the necks of any grunt unfortunate enough to be in his way.

Matt finally got tired for waiting for his grunts to put the man down and grabbed the crossbow from the dead man that had fallen beside him near the start of the battle. He felt it a touch fitting that he would bring the Guardian down with a crossbow bolt as the other Guardian had stopped the last bolt from claiming a victim. He had quickly surmised that this man had no ability to manipulate Aura long range as he crashed into the Aqua line. A bolt was released and it flew true to strike Aurion in the chest.

The large bear of a man spun around from the impact of the bolt. Pain blossomed in his chest and he only had a moment to glare at his assailant before a second bolt flew true and struck him right in his nose. Aurion’s face exploded in a volcano of blood, bone, cartilage, and brain matter.

With a smile the Admin of Team Aqua strolled over to the dead body and kicked it with his boot to make sure the man was dead. Not that there was a question of it since the man’s face was mostly gone now. With one last chuckle, Matt turned back to his command. A quick survey put their losses as heavy but acceptable. Most of the pokemon and grunts killed in action were lower level…in other words replaceable. The higher level grunts and pokemon had mostly survived intact thankfully.

“Well what are you idiots waiting for? Any grunt still standing get the wounded down to sick bay! Any remaining strike teams form up and go after them! Someone alert the air assault teams to ready for intercept in case they make it off the island.” Matt directed smoothly.

 A _ A   
(o' - 'o) / /   
() () \ \   
(")__(") /

 

Dewford Town - port

“Hey!” Ash called out when he started to run up the street leading towards the pokemon center when he ran into Gary and the others.

“Ashy boy!” Gary called out with a smile. “You missed your chance to play the hero.”

“Where the fuck were you Ketchum? We need to get the fuck out of here!” Paul growled.

“Sorry I got caught up fighting with Brawly turns out this entire island is Team Aqua.” Ash responded with a slightly defensive tone in his voice. He knew that Paul tended to go right on the attack when he was stressed out but that didn’t mean Ash had to like it.

“Figured that one out ourselves when they ambushed us.” Cynthia responded in a dry tone. “We need to go! Two Aura Guardians came out of nowhere and pulled our asses out of the fire but if we don’t move, Aqua will be on us.”

Without further comment the group started to run back towards the port. Pikachu quickly took point since he was the only pokemon out and fresh. Thankfully the group didn’t run into any more Aqua grunts or their pokemon on their way down to the port. 

“Which one do we take?” Brock questioned as they stopped short in the port area. Team Aqua command ship dwarfed everything else in the port and they currently were standing under the shadow it created even though it was at the far end of the port. They could see Aqua members scurrying around it from their current location as they got ready to move the giant ship to dry dock for repairs. The ships in this part of port ranged from smaller sea-doos to small fishing vessels.

Ash quickly decided on a slightly larger ship that was large enough to have a below deck but fast enough they should be able to out run any larger boarding ships they would send after them. Hopefully it could take some punishment if it came to it. “We’ll take that one!” Ash pointed to his chosen vessel before he made his way over and clambered onboard. “Pikachu and I will hotwire it. Everyone else grab any food or supplies from the nearby boats. We leave in five.”

The others quickly dispersed to grab any items they could that were either left out on the dock or in other boats ever mindful of potential Aqua arrival.

Ash got behind the seat of the boat before slipping his hand underneath before he found the panel that granted access to the wiring. With a yank he managed to rip it off before chucking it overboard. “Alright Pikachu do your magic.”

“Pika!” The little electric rodent had a thing for hotwiring electrical items. Part of the reason that it had refused to evolve into Raichu was that it would lose the fingers it needed for such a delicate operation. With a quick swipe of his little claws he exposed the wires and quickly fumbled about before making contact with the necessary parts. A moment later he was rewarded with the rumbling sound of the boat’s engine starting up. The little electric type turned to his trainer before giving Ash a thumbs up. “Pi chu Pika Chu!”

“Thanks buddy. Good work.” Ash patted Pikachu’s head before he left the rodent to it. He busied himself with getting rid of the tie downs to free the boat from the dock. Last thing they needed was the boat taking half the dock with it in the escape.

“Ash!” Cynthia called out before she jumped onto the deck of the boat with an armful of supplies she had pilfered from a nearby yacht. “One more coming!”

“One of the Guardians?” Ash queried while he threw the last tie down off the boat.

“Looks like it. He’s just coming down the street now.” Cynthia pointed towards the young man she had briefly met earlier the same one that had saved her ass. She had been through too many life or death battles to think she could save everyone. Sometimes people died and soldiers were scarified for the greater good of the group but she was not one to leave if there was a chance she could rescue someone though she had to take the chance.

Ash called out to get his pokemon’s attention. “Pikachu up to the roof fin. Blast anything that starts to get close to the man running down the street. And keep an eye out in the sky for any nasty aerial surprises.” After a moment of hesitation Ash withdrew a second pokeball and released Sceptile. The giant forest pokemon appeared with a roar and immediately scanned the area for an opponent. Finding none the grass type adopted a bored expression before it glanced over to his trainer.

“Sorry buddy just need an extra set of eyes. If we need to take off and that guy running towards us is in range I want you to vine whip him on board. If anything comes near us other than Gary, Cynthia, Brock, or Paul I want you to Leaf Storm them into oblivion.” Ash relayed his orders.

“Scep.” Sceptile responded with a long suffering sigh.

“Prissy reptile.” Ash grumbled under his breath much to Cynthia’s amusement.

Less than a minute later they were joined by Gary, Paul, and Brock. The first two carried supplies that they had ransacked from some of the neighboring boats. Brock on the other hand had somehow managed to find liquor and what appeared to be a blow up doll.

“What the hell is that?” Ash asked not even attempting to keep the disgusted look off of his face.

“Hehehe.” Brock grinned as a lecherous giggle left his lips. “I found myself a willing companion for our voyage.”

“Yeah no you didn’t.” Gary responded before ripping the doll from his arms and throwing it overboard into the water before Brock could stop him.

“Monica!” Brock cried out in distress before he quickly leaned over the railing in a futile effort to reach the doll that started to float under the dock.

“You named it? That’s disgusting.” Cynthia pulled a face of disbelief before she looked over to Ash to confirm that this was in fact happening.

Ash just nodded a little in resignation. He had unfortunately been traveling with Brock for far too long because this didn’t surprise him a bit.

“Murderer!” Brock cried as he finally gave up on his quest and pulled himself back on board. A moment later he spun to face Gary with tears streaming down his face. “I can’t believe you did that!”

“That he threw your sex doll that had a high probability of being used off of the boat?” Paul commented with a roll of his eyes. “Yeah couldn’t believe how he will live with that on his conscience.”

With the arrival of Erik any further response was cut off. The young Aura Guardian threw himself into the boat and brought the groups attention back to the important matter at hand of escaping from Team Aqua. “Aurion stayed behind to hold them off.” The Guardian said in a slightly hollow tone. His eyes were already slightly empty probably from shock.

“Let’s get going!” Cynthia ordered. “Put as much distance as you can before they decide to pursue.”

“Right!” Ash responded before jumping into the pilot’s seat and throwing the boat into gear. A moment later he taxied the boat out of the slip and into the free water of the port’s bay.

“We better get him downstairs.” Gary commented before he picked up one side of the Aura Guardian before Paul picked up the other. The group was still on high alert for any signs of pursuit and had yet to let their guard down.

For once though it appeared luck was finally on their side. With Ash at helm they managed to put a good distance between them and any pursuit that Team Aqua had sent after them.

Ash let off the throttle and put the boat into the equivalent of cruise control when he felt that they had gained enough distance. He stood up from his seat and stretched out a bit before calling up to Pikachu. “Come on down buddy you’ve been up there for the last two hours why not take a rest. Sceptile will keep up watch from the deck. I’ll give you a shout if you’re needed to help repel any curious water types.”

“Pika.” Pikachu responded with a yawn. The little electric type quickly ran down the side of the small antenna cluster he had been camping out in for the last two hours or so. With barely a nod to his trainer the small electric type disappeared down below.

“Excuse you.” Cynthia said in a mock angry tone as she came up the stairs almost tripping over the little electric type.

Pikachu turned back to Cynthia before he shot her a raspberry and disappeared into one of the few open doors.

Chuckling a little at the small electric type antics, Cynthia pulled herself up the remaining stairs before collapsing in the co-pilots chair next to Ash. A small smirk crossed her face. “You look really intense.”

“Sorry.” Ash muttered with a slight chuckle while rubbing the back of his head. “I don’t pilot a boat too often. My preferred mode of transportation is Charizard or Pidgeot.”

“Well you seem to be handling it fine.” Cynthia responded with an encouraging smile causing Ash to blush a little under her intense scrutiny.

“I guess.” Ash responded with a slight shrug before changing the subject. “So how is everyone doing? I haven’t really been paying attention to the goings on.”

“Paul and Gary are both passed out below. Brock I think drank himself to sleep and Erik is just…well I think this was his first real battle. He seems to just be in shock. We put him in a room with Brock so I don’t know if that was such a good idea but Gary insisted.” Cynthia commented with a little bit of mirth in her voice.

“So he’s really an Aura Guardian then?” Ash queried while absently scanning the water ahead. It was starting to get dark now and he’d have to make the decision to continue onwards with running lights and risk detection or drop anchor somewhere and risk Aqua catching up. With Paul and Gary sleeping though he could easily force them into a shift of driving. They couldn’t screw it up really since they’d probably be the only boat out this far from land other than a container ship or two.

“As much as I can tell.” Cynthia responded with a slight smirk. “He even saved my life from ending prematurely.”

“I don’t know whether to thank him or hit him.” Ash commented with a wink.

“Not funny!” Cynthia responded with a mock glare before lightly hitting his nearest arm. “I really don’t think you have a right to make fun of me since I saved you the first time I met you.”

“I guess we just don’t hold ourselves to traditional gender stereotypes.” Ash chuckled lightly.

Cynthia snorted a little before a smile crept onto her face. “I can’t say I mind but if you’d like to repay me by saving me next time I wouldn’t say no.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Ash smiled before taking a glance down at the radar and let out a sigh. “Not to get all mopey but I hate that I had to kill Brawly. I really thought he was a nice guy but it turns out he supported Aqua and was delusional. He thought he was there to guide the people of Hoenn into glory or some bullshit.”

“I know what you mean.” Cynthia offered a smile of condolence. “I ran into a similar issue right after I became champion. One of the gym leaders I had beaten during my journey and I thought I had become friends turned out to be an anti-leaguer. He led a small rebellion right after I took over thinking that I’d be easy pickings having no real experience running the League yet.”

“What happened?” Ash asked softly. He found the gentle lull of the ocean lapping against the hull of the ship as it cut through the water comforting and found he was a little more willing to open up and ask questions than he normally would be inclined to.

“Well it took a few months to finally put the insurrectionists to heel. I ended up facing off with him in the end. I tried to make him see reason but he had all these high minded ideals that the League just never could live up to. He thought he knew the way and tried to force Sinnoh onto it. I ended up killing him myself. My first human kill was someone I thought was a friend.” Cynthia felt her eyes misting a little as she reminisced about the experience.

“The first one is always the hardest.” Ash commented quietly.

“What about you?” Cynthia responded. “You owe me for not saving me today.”

“You don’t find it odd we are bonding over the first time we killed someone?” Ash questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“We could bond over kinky sexual positions if you’d like.” Cynthia offered with a waggle of her eyebrows. The misty look in her eyes started to clear up due to the enjoyment she got out of teasing him.

“Errr….” Ash blushed profusely at Cynthia’s comment causing the Sinnoh Champion to laugh. The laugh, Ash noted, sounded like bells and was quite pleasant to his ears. “Right…ummm.”

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Ash managed to give Cynthia a mock glare which only caused Cynthia to laugh harder.

“My first time was actually an accident. I was just a trainer and group of Rockets had cornered a girl for her pokemon. It was right when they were really starting to operate in the open and not just the shadows. Long story short the guy thought I was an easy kill and didn’t realize that I had a knife on me. He was chocking me and I just stabbed him in the chest. I think I just sat there until the Rangers arrived and thank Mew I had Pikachu with me. My little buddy kept the rest at bay from the girl and I until the Ranger reinforcements arrived.” Ash commented. Honestly he was not really bothered by his first kill as far as he was concerned it was a simple case of self-defense. So caught up in his reminiscent mood he was surprised when a weight suddenly dropped on him.

He looked up to find Cynthia sitting on his lap. He raised his eyebrows a little in askance before Cynthia leaned forward and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and pressed herself against him.

“I’m cold.” Cynthia said in response to the unasked question. “Thanks for sharing with me Ash. Not only tonight but last night as well. I just wanted to tell you that…no matter what you’ve done…the past is nothing but the past. It is the nightmares of our past that will bring happiness to the future of others. I know I’ve sacrificed a lot to create the dream of peace…but I know you’ve done far more than anyone should ever be asked to.”

To be truthful Ash was currently blushing beat red and trying to form a sentence that was not a stutter. Honestly he hadn’t felt this way about a girl in a long time. Sure May had reawakened some feelings but it was more of a puppy love. Something that he knew she would grow tired of when she realized the amount of baggage he carried and an emotional investment that he wasn’t prepared for. Cynthia though just accepted him as he was it seemed. She didn’t necessarily push and never judged him for his past actions. It helped that she had been through similar experiences and accepted that he had done what he thought was right.

“Are you alright Ash?” Cynthia asked while still pressed against him. The blonde haired champion knew just what she was causing. She was not exactly an innocent little flower and after a life that denied her so many things she knew if she really wanted something it was up to her to reach out and take it.

“Uh huh…” Ash responded with a slightly dazed tone.

Cynthia smirked a little before pulling herself off Ash. “Well I am going to bed. I find I sleep better with company though.” With that last comment the Champion of Sinnoh disappeared down the steps leaving Ash alone on the deck.

For his part Ash was still trying to process what had just happened. The invite was quite clear but the question was should he take it? He leaned back in his chair a little and stared out at the setting sun. It was almost getting dark and the events from the morning and afternoon were starting to hit him. Decision made Ash decided that sleeping in the same bed a Cynthia was an appealing proposition. He could ponder what this meant for his relationship with Leaf’s memory at a later date. Hopefully his first love would forgive him for finding some happiness in this fucked up world. He supposed he could ask Gary later but that just didn’t feel quite right. Instead he found himself wondering if Cynthia would be a good outlet. While most girls would probably be turned off he knew that Cynthia had been through loss as well and she would understand. If he couldn’t reconcile his love for Leaf and what he was feeling for Cynthia he knew he would remain unable to commit and it would be unfair to the Sinnoh Champion.

With an annoyed sigh, Ash checked the scanner once more before deciding that nothing was in range and he would send Paul or Gary above to continue piloting. For now he wanted to go crash and the enticement of sleeping with Cynthia was just too great. Tomorrow he’d deal with his turmoil of emotions currently processing through his head.

Popping down below deck, Ash banged on Paul and Gary’s door before peeking in. “Hey I’m going to go crash. Get up to the deck before we run into something.”

“Bastard.” Gary responded before throwing his pillow at the door but Ash had already disappeared down the hall. 

A moment later Paul and Gary made their way to the deck to take their shift at the helm.

Ash made his way into the cramped quarters that Cynthia had managed to claim as her own. It appeared she had taken the best available since there was an actual full size bed and not a set of bunk beds like in all the other rooms he had peaked in on.

“Offer still open?” Ash found himself asking. He had planned on smoothly coming into the room before slipping into bed without saying a word. Instead he managed to put his foot in his mouth and probably lose the offer.

“I wouldn’t have said anything if I didn’t mean it.” Cynthia responded with a raised eyebrow. Honestly she had not really expected him to take her up on her offer but she was pleasantly surprised to find him in the room.

“Right. Well I’m here.” Ash responded awkwardly and found himself looking around the tiny bedroom at anything but Cynthia once he realized that she was quite naked underneath the sheets if the clothing strewn across the floor was anything to go by.

“Shut up and get in bed.” Cynthia commented with a sardonic smile.

“Shutting up.” Ash responded before he closed the bulkhead door and turned off the lights. He stripped down to a similar state before slipping into bed next to Cynthia. The moment that he slipped into bed, Cynthia attacked him.

A soft pair of very feminine lips attached themselves to Ash and he found himself responding without any hesitation. He let his fingers dance across her lithe body before moving further down.

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Escape Boat – Brock and Erik’s cabin.

Erik checked once more to make sure the unwanted roommate was truly passed out. Finding that the man was truly out, the Guardian padded out of the room and moved over to Gary and Paul’s room. The room was searched but couldn’t find the information that had been taken from the Team Aqua command ship. A slight scowl crossed the face of the Guardian before departing the room. Prior to leaving the room was mostly placed back together to the point it would be hard to discern that anyone had been in the room at all.

Cynthia’s room was the next stop in the search but the search was waylaid from the sounds coming from behind the closed door. Clearly the two in the room were not asleep and probably wouldn’t be for a while. Giving up the room as a bust for now the search was expanded to cover the other rooms.

The other empty rooms were checked as well but nothing turned up. With a slight growl the Guardian stepped into the storage closet before a pokemon was released behind the closed door to keep the light of the release hidden. A moment later a miniature Ditto popped out.

The small pokemon looked around before eyeing it’s trainer with curiosity. The Guardian placed a finger to the lips before the hand came up to the hair and gently pulled the disguise off. Underneath a smiling Duplica appeared. “Mini Dit…I need you take the form of a Ghastly.”

The miniature Ditto complied and in a blast of white light that thankfully was hidden behind the storage closet. A miniature floating Ghastly appeared barely larger than a baseball.

“Good work Mini Dit. I am looking for some information that was liberated from Team Aqua. When the lights go off in the room across the hall I need you to quickly and quietly look for the information. I need to find a way to sink this piece of shit.” Duplica grumbled mostly to herself. If she couldn’t find the information then she’d just get rid of all the evidence. She had faith that Ash Ketchum would make it off the ship without drowning.

Master would be most displeased if she killed him to complete a secondary mission. When her Master had contacted her and provided an updated mission to destroy and erase any evidence she had luckily run across the fleeing Aura Guardian. The young man had been so worn out he hadn’t put up much of a struggle and with a quick snap of the neck and a change she was Erik the Aura Guardian. Even better that the brats had apparently had waited for him. Duplica never even knew that Aurion had sent the lad along to save his life or so he thought. She could surmise that was what had occurred but she really didn’t care in the end if the man was running away by choice or through force. 

After her Mini Dit disappeared into thin air, Duplica quickly pulled the mask back across her face and became Erik once more. Erik popped open the door with a far more confident air than earlier. In fact he felt like he could take a turn at the helm. With a smile he made his way on deck and greeted the two on deck already. “Gary…and Paul was it? If you’d like I can take over so you can get some shut eye.”

“I’m fine.” Gary responded with a placating smile. “Thanks for the offer.”

“No offense but I don’t need you having a panic attack and driving us into the shallows.” Paul responded sardonically. “One of us will stay up here with you if you want to take over.”

“No…no that’s alright. Perhaps I should take some time before jumping back into things. I just hate feeling useless.” Erik responded with a forced smile. Internally though Duplica was fuming. She couldn’t believe these two had turned down her offer. She thought for sure that they would jump at the chance to go back to sleep.

“You can always stay up here if you’d like. I know I didn’t want to be alone after my first real battle.” Gary said sympathetically. He felt he had to make up for Paul’s less than helpful response.

“No…no I rather be alone I think. I’ll go back down below and get some more rest.” Without further comment Duplica departed to do just that. She had hoped to strike while they group was worn out from their earlier battle but it was not meant to be. Perhaps it was for the best this would give Mini Dit more time to recover the information they had about Team Aqua and Team Magma’s end game.

“Weird kid.” Gary commented once he was sure that Erik had disappeared below deck.

“I don’t trust him.” Paul responded flatly before returning his attention to the ship’s radar. If he had calculated it correctly they should be arriving in Slateport in about a day or so from their current position.

“You don’t seem to have a problem with the rest of us and you just met some of us.” Gary chuckled at Paul’s response. Really he had never met someone as paranoid and distrustful as this guy. While they got along well enough their views on things differed drastically. While Gary was willing to trust someone new to a certain extent it appeared Paul had no such plans.

“I’ve worked with Ketchum and Cynthia. Harrison is a class A pervert but trustworthy as long as it is not regarding women and you are a well-known and respected Doctor. That and you have Ash’s vote of confidence. This Erik is an unknown. He saved us but I don’t know what his end game is.” Paul commented off hand.

“Glad to know I get your vote of confidence.” Gary chuckled. “With such a winning personality I’m sure you have the girls lining up.”

“Hn.” Paul responded with a grunt that signified he was uninterested in continuing the current line of conversation.

“Come on…really no one from home at all?” Gary prodded with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“Are you normally this annoying?” Paul gave a long suffering sigh. He really did not like when people attempted to poke and prod into his personal life. He had very little interest in the personal lives of others and just wanted the same level of respect.

“Normally yes.” Gary responded with a smirk. “You know Ashy boy went right past the room with Brock and Erik with the third bed and went to Cynthia’s room.”

“So?” Paul responded this time not bothering to hide the annoyance from seeping into his tone.

“Not concerned your Champion may currently be in a rather compromising position with Ash?” Gary prodded once more in an attempt to get some kind of response out of the young purple haired trainer other than anger or disinterest. Really without Ash or May around to rile up things just got boring for Gary.

“I’m not in charge of the company she keeps.” Paul responded tersely.

“You’re no fun.” Gary muttered.

“I’m not here for your amusement. If you want to get into a verbal sparring match over a pointless subject go find Ash.” Paul commented.

“Whatever…anyway I’m gonna go grab some more shut eye since you don’t seem to appreciate my wonderful company.” Gary got up and made his way towards the stairs.

“Mew grant me strength.” Paul muttered under his breath. It would be a miracle if he didn’t end up murdering everyone on the ship by the time they got to Slateport City. Honestly he couldn’t tell you who he would start with. Gary was annoying as shit, Brock was an annoying pervert, Ash was just annoying, and Cynthia was currently making questionable life choices. Erik was a special case that Paul just didn’t trust and would keep an eye on for the remainder of the journey.

Elsewhere a displeased Duplica slipped back into the shared room with Brock and decided to sleep on it and continue her plan when she woke up. In the guise of Erik the Aura Guardian, Duplica popped onto the top bed since Brock was still passed out on the bottom. A look of disdain crossed Erik’s face upon seeing Brock again. If there was one thing she would make sure to do before she left it was to kill Brock. She still couldn’t believe she had needlessly fucked him.

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Escape boat – Cynthia and Ash’s room.

“Wow.” Ash breathed out a contented sigh before he slung one of his arms around the blonde haired woman. The two were covered in a sheen of sweat from their activity.

“Color me impressed.” Cynthia responded with a teasing tone. She wrapped herself around Ash’s body just enjoying how close the pair were and Ash’s body heat.

Ash glanced down at Cynthia with a mock hurt expression. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” Cynthia chuckled softly before she turned her head and kissed Ash on the cheek.

“I’ll show you nothing.” Ash flipped Cynthia over and took the initiative this time causing Cynthia to squeal in delight and once more the two started up their previous activities where they left off.

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South of Littleroot Town – Ranger Outpost

“I’m sorry May. Dewford Island just sent out a broadcast to all nearby travel locations. They said they’ve had an outbreak of an unknown virus and the island is under quarantine until it is identified.” Drew informed May with a slight sigh. To tell the truth he knew he was just as unhappy as she was to make it all the way to Littleroot just to be denied right before they started the final leg of their journey.

“It’s not your fault Drew.” May responded in a quiet tone. So close and yet so far away from Ash it was frustrating that she had come so close to be denied.

Drew at least had some information to cheer her up and could only hope for a favorable response. “When I asked they did inform me that no visitors had arrived at the island in the past few weeks. They probably warned him away and he turned to Slateport City.”

A renewed energy filled May at Drew’s words. “Let’s get to Slateport then!” May was already in a whirlwind and disappeared into the small room she had been provided at the Ranger Station.

Drew rolled his eyes and fought to keep a condescending smile from crossing his face. “Hold your horses the Swellows need some time to recover and recharge before we fly them.”

“Then we go by foot!” May announced when she came back out of her room with her backpack on her shoulders.

“You’re impossible.” Drew muttered but with a defeated sigh disappeared into an equally small room to gather his equipment.

“Not impossible Drew just stubborn.” May chirped.

“Whatever let’s get going before I come to my senses.” Drew grumbled.

The two travelers departed from the Ranger outpost on foot heading in the direction of Slateport City. Due to the location of the outpost they would cut through the forest on the East side of Littleroot Town. They would then use water types to ferry them across the bay and then trek through the jungle on the other side to get to Slateport.

 

A/N: And there we go. I really moved the relationship of Cynthia and Ash forward at breakneck speed. Next chapter they’ll deal with the emotional fall out and see on what level it will continue. I’ve brought Duplica back to spoil every body’s fun and May is still trying to reach Ash. Next chapter we’ll check in on Lucy, the Aura Guardians, and may have an update from the Kanto region. Anyway let me know what you think. Love it, hate it, or think my writing style is shit and have some pointers I’ll take it all.

Other than that have a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate if you don’t hope you have a wonderful Holiday and that you enjoy the celebration of your favored religious holiday or just celebrate the season. Anyway I don’t know when the next update will be since I will be busy with a slew of interviews after the holiday and the holidays will see me away from a computer for the most part.

 

 


	18. Slateport City - Scrappy

A/N: Probably going to be the last chapter for a bit. My personal life is about to go into overdrive. I just got a job offer so I am going to be busy learning my new position soon and may not have as much time to write as I would like. I am also going to be taking my GRE’s to get into Grad School so I’ll probably be crying soon. I am probably going to edit some of the previous chapters…for real this time to remove Gardevoir since the storyline never really panned out like I wanted it to.

Ash’s pokemon currently on hand:

Charizard

Arcanine

Pikachu

Sceptile

Lucario

Gengar

Chapter 18 – Slateport City - Scrappy

Hoenn Aura Guardians Base of Operations –

Riley had been walking down the hall when he suddenly felt Aurion’s Aura just disappear. Just catching himself from stumbling over, Riley felt the Aura of Erik suddenly disappear. A frown crossed his face. There was only one reason that a Guardian’s Aura would just disappear, it meant that both of his men were dead. What disturbed him further was that Ghul’s Aura that had disappeared a while back suddenly came back but it wasn’t right. While it did not match the Aura of the Red Aura user it didn’t feel right almost like it was corrupted or sick.

 _“Master…”_ Lucario flash stepped to her master’s side. The Aura pokemon had sensed the distress of her Master and broke off training to attend her master.

“They’re gone.” He muttered more to himself than answering Lucario. After pulling himself together, Riley made his way towards the communication’s room of the base. It appeared that the threat to Hoenn was greater than he originally thought. To kill two Aura Guardians no matter what the experience level meant that the threat was serious. If it was this bad then he would have to recall all the Guardians and they would have to reassess the situation.

 _“Master.”_ Again Lucario attempted to gain her master’s attention. The jackal like pokemon followed at her master’s heels. Whatever was causing such irritation in her master had disturbed his aura. Lucario could feel the emotions swirling freely around the man’s Aura.

“I have to call Steven.” Riley spoke aloud more to himself than actually answering his pokemon. It was only due to years of studying that he managed to keep a tight lock on his emotions. If he didn’t the uncontained Aura would be released indiscriminately and probably cause massive damage to the base.

With a gentle push of his Aura he opened the door oaken door into the communications room. The room was once a grand room used for entertaining and balls from the appearance. At the far end sat the table that the Guardians would usually use for their meetings. The communications suite was actually rather small consisting of two desks with video phones mounted to the desks and a large video screen mounted to the wall in front of them. Riley made his way over to one of the desks and took a seat in the utilitarian chair that they had brought in. Like most of the equipment in their base, the items that made up their equipment were light in weight and strong in design.

Lucario stood silently by her master’s side. The pokemon had seen the man like this only a few times and it normally meant nothing good. With the use of her aura she offered comfort to her master. An unspoken smile crossed Riley’s lips in response to his pokemon’s attempt to comfort him.

After dialing in the number for the Champion, Riley waited patiently for Steven to answer. What he was not expecting was to find a dirty and exhausted Steven on the other end. The normally immaculate man had burn marks on the side of his face. The sleeves of his suit jacket were shredded and barely held together. There was a long jagged wound running across his chest where the fabric was split and dried blood was left on the edges. Riley couldn’t help the surprise from entering his voice when he addressed Steven. The most concerning part of his appearance was the sheered hair and the large head wound that was still oozing blood. “Champion…”

“Riley.” Steven responded in a surprisingly even tone. “I assume this is an emergency.”

“Yes, Champion.” Riley answered in kind. “Two of my Guardians have been killed in action. I was last tracking their Aura near Dewford Town. I believe the original threat is greater than I thought.”

“The threat?” Steven asked with a slight quirk of his eyebrow. “This is the first time I am hearing of this.”

“Yes…a couple of months ago one of my younger Guardians sensed a user of the darker corrupt Aura. I sent two of them to find this user and assess the threat. I believe the user discovered his tails and kill them. My Guardians would not be wiped out one after the other so quickly unless it was in a battle.” Riley commented. He tried to keep the frown that was threatening to come across his face. With the Champion he found it best to be as blank as possible. The man wasn’t a huge fan of the Guardians but let them operate freely for the most part.

“Why wasn’t I informed of this threat earlier?” Steven responded with a slight frown. “I am the Champion of Hoenn and the defender of any threats both internally and externally. Did you believe yourself to be of more importance than I? Remember Guardian your little vigilante arm exists at my pleasure.”

“Of course, Champion, it was not that I was trying to supersede your judgment with my own but this matter was something only the Guardians would be concerned with.” Riley answered carefully.

“DO NOT TELL ME WHAT WILL BE MY CONCERN!” Steven’s face contorted into a look of pure loathing. A quick slam of his fist onto the table rattled the image on Riley’s end. This was the true face of the Champion. While Steven was slow to anger and was normally an easy going person when he was pushed he became a true force to be reckoned with. “You would be wise to get to the point Guardian. You are already testing my patience.”

Riley bowed his head slightly in deference to Steven’s position. As much as he wanted to tell the Champion off it would not help his cause. The last thing he wanted was for Steven to order the Guardians banished from his lands if not killed for perceived treason. “I apologize, Champion. I was calling to provide you warning and request you to send a scouting party to Dewford Town to discover what happened to my Guardians.”

“I don’t have time for your little games of intrigue within your own kind, Guardian.” Steven responded with a slightly condescending tone in his voice. “Team Magma has taken Slateport City and I am dealing with a real crisis.”

Without further comment Steven terminated the video call. He half wondered why he allowed the Aura Guardians to exist but the answer was simple. It was a Hoenn tradition and as much as he loathed their holier than thou attitude he refused to be known as the Champion that dismantled them. Now that wasn’t to say that he would provide them much support. If anything he was probably a fairly lenient Champion compared to some that attempted to regulate the Guardians or add them into the regular command structure.

“Status.” Steven called out as he stepped away from the video phone. Any time he was away from Hoenn League he always had his personal number forwarded to his personal vid phone that was built into his dex. With a swift pull he detached said dex from the larger video phone equipment he had been using.

“Champion, Hoenn League has been contacted. Sidney and Phoebe are enroute to our location with Ranger reinforcements. Drake and Glacia shall guard the League. Wattson is coming down from Mauville City as soon as he can.” The nondescript Ranger from Steven’s personal guard reported in a no-nonsense tone.

“Very good.” Steven responded before dismissing his guard with a nod. With one last look at the video phone, Steven left the small command tent to the few Rangers working the computers. The moment he stepped out he was confronted with what was a slap to the face. In front of him stood Slateport City now firmly in control of Team Magma. A few days prior to his arrival the city had been taken by a surprise attack. The only warning they received was a transmission from Nurse Joy. The Rangers on station and their pokemon had been killed in a surprise attack. Captain Stern was in Magma’s custody and even has Champion he and his personal guards did not have the firepower to break through their lines as he had unfortunately discovered in the first scrimmage.

What caused further concern was that twins Tate and Liza had reported a theft of some artifacts of their city. The twins were rather tight lipped about the whole situation only reporting that the items stolen were important to their people and the balance of Hoenn. He couldn’t say he really understood the balance part but something told him that the attack on Slateport and the theft from Mossdeep were related and he wouldn’t like the results.

 

Escape boat – bound for Slateport City

 

Ash awoke to the feeling of insulted warmth. At first he let out a content sigh and gathered the warmth closer that was until he realized that the warm item was in fact composed of soft flesh and feminine curves. Then the night before came back in a burst. He had slept with Cynthia. It had been a decision he had made in the heat of the moment. Due to the close escape he had been on an adrenaline high and just responded to her advancements. Now though everything was crashing down around him. He had promised Leaf that she would be his only true love but here he was in the bed of another and even worse he had enjoyed it.

With little warning he suddenly sat up and swung his feet around to rest on the ground. He felt his chest start to tighten and started to hyper ventilate. Behind him Cynthia started to rouse from her slumber. The golden haired Champion sighed in contentment before she moved to snuggle into Ash. A moment later though she realized he was no longer there. Against her will she opened her eyes to find Ash already off the bed and getting dressed. He had attempted to do so quietly but the moment he left the bed she noticed. A slight frown passed her lips. “Ash…”

Ash looked up in surprise his fingers fumbling to get his shirt on. The Ranger looked back at Cynthia his face showing his confusion, regret, and to a certain amount fear. After swallowing the painful lump that had formed in his throat he finished putting his shirt on. “Cynthia…I’m sorry but last night was a mistake. I can’t…I can’t be what you want. I just…I have to go.”

“Ash! Wait we can talk about this!” Cynthia responded hotly. In fact she couldn’t believe that Ash was running away after what they had done the night before. She wouldn’t lie after a battle she found that sex was a great way to loosen up and calm down from the adrenaline rush. When Ash responded to her advances she had simply assumed that he felt the same way but it apparently was a bigger step for him than it had been for her.

“No, Cynthia, I just can’t do this alright. I’m sorry I just need some time to think.” Ash responded before moving to the door.

“Talk to me about it then!” Cynthia responded with a slight frown crossing her face. “You’ve gotten so used to holding everything in Ash that you forget that there are others around you that care. You’re not alone anymore.”

“I’ve been alone for a long time.” Ash returned with a little more venom than he meant to. “You’re not going to change anything so don’t try.”

“Fine!” Cynthia responded with a slightly hurt look crossing her features. “Fine…go brood I see you don’t need anyone anyway. You’re not the only one used to being alone. I just thought we could at least be alone together.”

Ash glanced back at Cynthia. A look of regret crossed his face before he decided it was best to let Cynthia know in no uncertain terms that it was over. Whatever they had, had was not to be. Perhaps she could escape the past but he couldn’t no matter how much he wanted to do just that. “We can never be together. You were just a passing fancy…I’m sorry if I misled you with my intentions.” He left a speechless Cynthia alone in her room and shut the door quietly behind him.

“Hey Ashy Boy…have a nice night?” Gary chuckled as he walked down the hallway and passed Ash on the Ranger’s way out. No response was given though other than a none too subtle bump against the shoulder by Ash in the confined hallway. Gary turned around to face Ash as he continued to walk backwards down the hall towards the small kitchen in the boat. “Good Morning to you too…geezus what crawled up your ass and died!” He called out just as Ash disappeared up the steps.

“He’s just mad at me.” Cynthia interrupted Gary’s tirade.

“Oh yeah and what’d you do to get his panties in a twist.” Gary responded with a slight roll of his eyes.

“I slept with him.” Cynthia stated in a matter of fact tone as if she was discussing the weather.

“So that’s why he’s acting so pissy.” Gary muttered before turning to Cynthia. The older woman didn’t seem to know what to do about the entire matter and he if he was at all honest he wasn’t sure what he should do either. Still if Ash had a shot at finding some kind of happiness for a second time in so many months there was no way he was going to let his friend shoot himself in the foot again figuratively speaking. “Look…I’ll try to talk to him but he probably needs some time to cool off.”

“I don’t think that is going to help.” Cynthia responded dryly. “He was rather clear about where we stood.”

Why? Why did this always happen with Ash. Ever since Leaf he would open up and then all of a sudden have some kind of realization of how close he was getting to someone and pull back. Then he would cut ties like it never happened. Gary glanced over at Cynthia before deciding that she was probably the only girl he had met since Leaf that could perhaps rein Ash in and punch through his bubble. “Ash has this annoying habit of letting someone in and then he will cut it off as if it never happened. This is the precursor to him ignoring you. Ever since losing his mother and then Leaf he just views everyone in his life as temporary.”

“So…what…you want me to be his personal dumping post because his losses are more important than mine.” Cynthia responded sarcastically. She leaned against the door frame her hair still mused from the night before and a frown on her normally beautiful features. “I’ve been down that road before and I’m not going to pull both my half and his half of the relationship.”

“Woah…woah…geez no no.” Gary brought his hands up as if in self-defense before he smirked a little. “As much as I love Ashy Boy I wouldn’t do that to a girl. No you need to take him by his neck and shake him until he understands. I’m not saying it is going to be instantaneous but you can’t take his crap and let him win his little game. I mean if you’re still interested in pursuing him of course.” Gary added the last bit with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows. “Because I’m always open to new experiences.”

“In your dreams…you’re almost as bad as Brock.” Cynthia smirked before pushing Gary away from the door a little. After a moment of thought she decided. If there was one thing she loved it was a puzzle and Ash sounded like he would be quite the challenge to break through to a second time if that was indeed how he operated. “I will give him a second chance but I’m not putting up with any of this yes and then no crap.”

“Wouldn’t even dream of it…but you don’t know what you’re missing.” Gary flashed a confident smirk her way. “But let me soften him up first for you, yeah? I’ll give him some time to brood and then proceed to make his life a living hell.”

“Cynthia darling…”Brock appeared from his doorway with a smile on his face. “Did I hear that you are once more available?” Without waiting for an answer he quickly skidded to a halt outside her door. “I just need you to know that Monica the sex doll meant nothing to me! Nothing! Also I found one packed away in my room. I’ve named her Jessica…if you’re interested in a three way, I’m sure I can persuade her…”

“That’s disgusting!” Gary cried out with a rather sour look crossing his face. With a growl he took out Arcanine’s pokeball. “Excuse me.”

“You’re leaving him with me?” Cynthia honestly felt a little betrayed.

“No just letting you distract him long enough so I can find that sex doll and burn both it and his sheets with fire.” Gary called over his shoulder before disappearing into Brock’s room.

“Jessica no not you too! I can’t lose two women in less than a day! My reputation will be ruined!” Brock called out before disappearing down the hall to follow Gary and hopefully stop his murder of his second sex doll. The humanity of it all! In all seriousness though he hadn’t been with a girl since he found out Lucy was really a spy and he needed this.

“That guy is a fucking idiot…I don’t see what Ketchum sees in him.” Paul commented in his normally harsh tone. The purple haired trainer came to a stop outside of Cynthia’s room and took a moment to look at Cynthia with a sidelong glance before commenting once more. “You know you could do better and I don’t mean Gary or myself.”

“Maybe but despite his faults we do share a common theme in our lives. He understands me and I for the most part understand him…well I am starting to…I think.” Cynthia responded with a slight smile falling across her face.

“Hn…just remember your job.” Paul commented before departing without another word. He left Cynthia to ruminate about her current problems. Problems that Paul didn’t want to deal with in all honesty. There was a reason he hadn’t seen his brother in years and the only girlfriend he had if you could call it that had been an annoying troublesome little girl that followed him around despite his wishes.

Paul made his way onto the top of the ship to get out of the way of having to deal with Brock and Gary who from the sounds of it were still fighting over Brock’s disgusting habit. He made his way to the pilot’s seat to find Erik at the wheel. Only years of practice kept a sour look from crossing his face. He couldn’t help but hate this kid. There was something off about him. He was too agreeable but at the same time in the short time he had been on board he appeared to study the others when he thought no one was looking. “I’m taking over. Go get some sleep.” Paul said shortly.

Erik nodded hesitantly before getting up to allow Paul to take over. Out of everyone on the boat she knew that Paul was going to cause the most trouble. The man was a paranoid cynic…the worst combination one could put together. Until she finally got access to the file she was looking for she would have to play it safe around him and try to look as nonthreatening as possible. If she couldn’t find it soon though she would have to scuttle the ship and make sure to terminate anyone other than Ash.

A soft smile crossed Erik’s face when he surveyed the course he had taken them on. Duplica had tried to put them as far off from Slateport City without making it obvious. Unfortunately she couldn’t do too much since Paul appeared to be an ever faithful League watchdog. Perhaps an accident would have to be arranged. It would be hard but the risk may be worth the reward. With Paul out of the way she could easily take down the remaining idiots.

Erik glanced over at Ash as he passed by the morose Ranger sitting at the bow of the boat before circling back to the aft and going downstairs. Honestly Duplica had been hoping to get away from everyone but she would settle with those remaining downstairs. If she got lucky she could get most if not all of them above deck and give her time to find the file wherever that bitch Cynthia had hidden it. Little did she know that Paul had taken to carrying said file with him on his person.

“Oh Erik?” Gary called out to the young Ranger as he popped his head out of the room that Erik and Brock were sharing. “Have you seen Ash?”

“Um…oh I think he is on the bow of the ship.” Erik responded in a timid manner. A suggestion came to Duplica’s mind to at least get Gary out of the area. Then she would just have to work on Cynthia and Brock. “He looked kinda down…perhaps you should go talk to him? I would but I don’t know him very well.”

“Aren’t you Guardians supposed to be in touch with people?” Gary chuckled a little. Upon seeing the worried expression on Erik’s face, Gary quickly waved off the young Ranger. “Don’t worry…I know Ash can be intimidating even if you can read his Aura.”

Erik just nodded before scrambling off towards the small kitchen in the boat.

“Weird kid.” Gary chuckled to himself before shaking his head a little in annoyance. Perhaps it was time to go find Ash and talk to him but first he’d stop off and make sure Paul was doing alright. With one last glance back at Erik he shook off his suspicions and made his way above deck.

Ash sat at the bow of the stolen ship and just stared off into the distance. He absently fumbled with the gloves that he always wore…well at least when they weren’t getting blasted off, lost, or taken off for one reason or another. They were a symbol of how much he had changed since he lost Leaf. It was a physical reminder of what had happened after he lost her and lost his control. He had lost any reason to live other than habit and some vague hope that he could repent for his sins that he committed on Cinnabar.

After staring down at his gloves for a moment longer he slowly pulled one of his gloves off. It was a test he performed in solitude every now and again to see if he had control. The moment the one glove came off he felt the control loosening. For a moment he savored the raw emotions. The rage and hate bubbled to the top…the need to kill. He slammed the door on his turbulent powers by sliding the glove he had taken off back onto his hand. The inhibitor pulsed softly as it returned control to Ash.

It was always the same though…no control. No matter what he did he found that these powers were out of his control. Even Mewtwo was unsure how to help him and the pokemon was arguably one of the greatest minds in the world. He returned to staring out towards the ocean. Ash really wasn’t sure what to do with Cynthia. On one hand he regretted some of the things that he said to her but at the same time he knew he still loved Leaf no matter how long it had been.

With a sigh he let his mind drift back to earlier times when he first met Leaf.

_Kanto – Pallet Town_

_A younger Ash watched in interest as the moving truck pulled into the house across the street. He looked around for his mother but couldn’t find her anywhere. Earlier that week he had been told that they would have new neighbors. The entire week he had been unable to sleep because he was so excited. A small sedan pulled up to the street and a tall man got out of the car followed by a lithe woman of standard height. What caught his interest was a young girl that got out after her parents._

_After a moment of indecision Ash ran out the door and crossed the street without any concern for oncoming traffic. He came right up to the small family and introduced himself immediately. “Hi, I’m Ash Ketchum! I’m gonna be a Pokemon Master!”_

_Leaf’s father chuckled in amusement at the straight forwardness the boy displayed. “Well Ash nice to meet you. I’m Daniel, this is my wife Amanda, and our daughter Leaf.” Daniel introduced his family to the new neighbor before asking. “Are you from across the street?”_

_“Yeah! I’m from the big house over there! I live with my mom!” Ash pointed back at his house. He was barely able to contain his energy and was jumping from foot to foot when he looked to Leaf. “You wanna come play with me! I got a sand box underneath my tree fort!”_

_“Can I Dad!” Leaf was excited at the prospect of playing instead of unpacking all day like her mother had said they would be doing today. The best way around her mother was always by going to her dad and getting permission before her mother could step in._

_Seeing the nod from Daniel, Ash took Leaf by the hand and led her back across the street. Behind them Amanda was giving Daniel an earful about teaching responsibility to Leaf not that either of the children paid attention to what was happening behind them._

_“We’re gonna be best friends forever and I’ll even let you be friends with Gary…he is cool but only sometimes but his grand dad is Professor Oak and he has sooooo many cool pokemon.” Ash explained to Leaf as they entered the back yard._

_“Ok!” Leaf responded with a bright smile. And with that a friendship was born._

_Kanto – A few years down the line._

_“Slept in again Ash?” Leaf cajoled the boy who was arguably her best friend. The answer was fairly obvious since Ash looked a complete wreck with an untucked shirt, mismatched shoes, and a rat’s nest of hair._

_“Yeah…” Ash grumbled before looking down at the pokeball he was given. It had a lightning bolt on it and contained a Pikachu that was going to be a challenge but he wasn’t an aspiring Pokemon Master for nothing. He planned on taming the borderline wild pokemon and make him the greatest starter ever!_

_“Soooooo who’d ya get?” Leaf prodded Ash once more. It was hard getting the full answer out of Ash without a lot of prodding in the morning she found. Once he was awake he was an open book but prior to noon he was useless. She herself had been one of the first ones there and managed to get a Squirtle. After Gary had chosen Charmander she figured she would need a water type to cool off the hot headed lug._

_“Erm…that is…Professor Oak…was kinda out…” Ash finished lamely while scratching the back of his head._

_“What!” Leaf yelled before rounding on Ash with a look of disbelief before she fell into lecture mode. “I asked you if you wanted me to wake you up! I knew I should have done it anyway. You never listen and now you broke your promise! You said we were all gonna start together!”_

_“Hey...hey…he found me something!” Ash defended himself. If it had been anyone else he would have let loose on them but Leaf tended to just make him feel worse for yelling at her so he had learned to mostly keep his mouth shut. Still for once he could get her for jumping to conclusions…ignoring the fact it had been complete luck that Professor Oak found something for him. With a victorious grin he held up the special pokeball. “I got a Pikachu! Professor Oak said he was saving it for a special trainer. He just happened to know how talented I was when I walked in.”_

_Leaf couldn’t help the slightly sour look cross her face. “So translation you lucked out and Professor Oak managed to wrangle up something for you?” Leaf asked before shaking her head. “You’re unbelievable Ash.”_

_“Che, why do you even still hang out with him anymore?” Gary interjected in his normally snarky tone. “I bet Ketchum drops out by his third badge cause he doesn’t got what it takes like me!”_

_With little warning, Leaf turned towards Gary with a look of anger on her face. “Gary Oak! You apologize this minute! You know perfectly well that he’d never go back on his promise.”_

_“Yeah Gary!” Ash growled. “I’ll be there with all eight badges by the next conference just you see!”_

_“Yeah…whatever.” Gary waved off the two. If he was going to say anything further he was cut off by Leaf grabbing his ear and dragging him over to Ash. “I swear you two are going to be the death of me, now make nice or I’ll tell Professor Oak and Ms. Ketchum you were making fun of me and made me cry.” Leaf threatened with a devious smile before she released Gary’s ear._

_Both boy’s eyes widened at the implications. Last time Leaf had done that the two of them had been grounded for a month and even worse Mr. Greene had all but castrated the two of them with words. The worst part was that Leaf’s father wasn’t a screamer he was the silent type when he was angry but you just knew you were going to die if he decided It was the necessary course of action to keep his little girl happy._

_“Geezus…vicious harpy.” Gary muttered._

_“Just smile and nod and maybe she won’t go crazy on us.” Ash responded as quietly as he could._

_“What was that?” Leaf asked with a slight raise of her eyebrow and glared daggers at the two boys._

_“Nothing!” Gary replied quickly before throwing his arm over Ash’s shoulder in a one armed hug and plastered a smile on his face. “Just saying how great we’re all gonna do!”_

_“Aye!” Ash agreed before throwing his free arm around Gary’s shoulder and the two began to walk away from Leaf as quick as their feet would carry them._

_Kanto – Fuchsia City – two years later_

_Ash stumbled before catching himself and continued his run with Leaf towards the Rangers. Overhead the city sirens were sounding and destruction was raining down from above as Team Rocket made their first step out of the shadows to take Fuchsia City. Even worse the Gym Leader they had just defeated the day before was actively helping Team Rocket! The two trainers had witness the man slit the throat of one of the trainers that had challenged him a few days ago and had been staying at the same pokemon center that they were in._

_“This way! This way! All civilians and trainers! By order of the League Rangers the city is to be evacuated!” A young Ranger called out to the two trainers and directed them towards the safe zone. A Blastoise stood by the young man keeping an eye out for any would be attackers._

_Leaf drug Ash down the path that the Ranger had indicated. “Com’on Ash!”_

_“I don’t understand why Team Rocket is doing this!” Ash half yelled to Leaf while he was running down the path the Ranger had indicated with Pikachu riding on his shoulder._

_“I think they’ve made it abundantly clear.” Leaf responded before she dodged around a piece of rock that came whistling through the air from a far off explosion._

_The two skidded to a halt though when a group of Team Rocket members came out from a cross street and effectively blocked their path. Ash and Leaf took a quick survey of the other two trainers that had been trailing behind them before nodding to each other._

_“Looks like this is gonna be a fight.” Ash commented. “You ready to light’um up Pikachu?”_

_“Pika!” Pikachu cried out with determination before leaping off Ash’s shoulder and landed in a battle stance. The electric type started sparking to show his intent of attacking to the Rocket members._

_“Remember we just needa blast through them!” Leaf cried before releasing her faithful Blastoise._

_Pikachu and Blastoise were soon joined by a Paras and a Mankey. The two trainers that were stuck with them were unfortunately green trainers and probably wouldn’t be much help but it was better than nothing._

_The small squadron of Team Rocket had not expected to meet any opposition of this level. Most trainers that were here were either green trainers from the area or fairly young trainers looking for badges. Most of the truly veteran trainers were on the other side of Kanto preparing for the upcoming conference. So the appearance of a fully evolved Blastoise caused the men and women to hesitate but only for a moment. The small squad released six pokemon more than enough to overpower the Blastoise as they wrote off the Pikachu, Mankey, and Paras much to their detriment._

_The pokemon that appeared were two Onix, a Beedrill, a Spearow, an Ekans, and finally a Venonat. While numerous the pokemon that Rocket fielded wouldn’t be a threat alone but together they’d cause an issue for the trainers._

_“I’ll take the two Onix, Ash take the Spearow and Beedrill, and you kid take your Paras against the Ekans. Kid with the Mankey take the Venonat. We’ll try to help you as soon as we can!” Leaf directed without hesitating she fell into her tactical mindset. While Ash normally relied on his pokemon’s power carrying him through she took a more subtle approach and knew how to play to her strengths._

_“Right!” The two trainers cried out before turning their attention to the Ekans and Venonat as directed leaving the other four pokemon to the two veteran trainers._

_“Blastoise Water Gun on those two rock snakes!” Leaf directed._

_“Pikachu blast’um with a Thunderbolt!” Ash cried out._

_“Under ground!” The two Rocket Trainers called out to their Onix. The two snakes disappeared under the ground._

_“Beedrill protect!” The Rocket member called out. A moment later a green screen appeared in front of the bee like pokemon along with protecting its feathered friend. The lightning bolt was absorbed by the green screen before it shattered from the power._

_“Now Spearow use Wing Attack on that Pikachu!” The Rocket trainer called out._

_“Dodge it with Quick Attack, Pikachu!” Ash directed with a slight frown. It appeared this battle was going to be harder than he had expected. He was hoping for a one strike finish but instead he was about to be dragged into a prolonged two on one battle._

_Leaf for her part was having an easier time despite the two on one advantage. “Now while they’re underground, Blastoise use surf! Send the water down underground!” The giant turtle pokemon created a wall of water and rode it across the battle field. The water from the attack quickly drained away but not before it funneled down the two tunnels. Roars of pain rewarded her attack._

_The two Rocket Members looked concerned for a moment before they each smiled. “Onix!” Each of them called. “Earthquake! Shake that turtle out of his shell!”_

_The tremors started from the two rock snakes slamming their full weight into the tunnels they had dug while underground. The earth above started to fracture and fall in on itself. Jagged peaks rose from the ground around Blastoise as the giant turtle attempted to keep balance on the shaking earth but the section that it stood upon started to sink._

_“Blastoise! Get out of there with Rapid Spin!” Lead called out to her giant turtle. The water type disappeared into its shell before it started to spin like a top. “Now fire water gun right into the ground to launch yourself out of the area!” Leaf directed._

_Without waiting the giant turtle popped his cannons out and blasted itself off the ground. The turtle pokemon spiraled away from the fractured earth right as the two Onix popped up from below ground to press their advantage._

_“Now while it’s in the air! Rock Throw!” Both Rocket members ordered their pokemon._

_Leaf grimaced as the rocks started to sail through the air. There was nothing for it if she wanted to pull off the attack she had in mind to finish the rock snakes. “Keep up the spin Blastoise!”_

_While Leaf was having trouble with her two attackers, Ash was having similar problems with what normally would be an easy fight._

_“Pikachu! Agility again!” Ash called out in an attempt to keep Pikachu’s speed up. No matter what he did the Beedrill would use Protect to absorb any of the lightning attacks that were headed for Spearow. Even worse the damn bird was harrying Pikachu any time the electric mouse got a chance to make an attack other than a quick Thundershock._

_“No matter how fast your little mousey runs it ain’t gonna make a bit of difference. Spearow I think it’s time to stop playing around and put the little rat down. Combine your Aerial Ace and Drill Peak! Drill right through that little rat!” The Rocket trainer that owned the Spearow directed his pokemon._

_“Keep up the harassment with Poison Sting, Beedrill!” The Rocket trainer directed his pokemon. The bee pokemon kept Pikachu from mounting an offensive to the attack by firing poison darts at the little electric mouse._

_“Pikachu!” Ash cried as his faithful pokemon was broadsided by Spearow’s aerial ace and drill peck combination. The little electric type was sent flying into a nearby tree. A streak of red covering his side almost immediately after Spearow disengaged._

_“Ka!” Pikachu cried out in pain before collapsing from the pain. The little electric type attempted to gather itself but the wound that Spearow left was a vicious life threatening injury that left the little pokemon bleeding out from the internal injuries sustained._

_“No Pikachu!” Ash cried out in fear of his partner’s situation before running towards his pokemon. Even from where he stood he could tell from the hit Pikachu took and the blood spreading out over the small mouse’s coat. He had forgotten all about the enemy pokemon until he took a poison sting to the arm. The hit caught Ash off balance and he was knocked from his feet and landed on the ground inches from Pikachu._

_The poison from the Beedrill was already entering Ash’s system. Nerves started to flare with pain and he started to see black spots in his vision as his breathing became labored. Ash managed to get himself onto his stomach and off his back just in time to feel the giant stinger of Beedrill go through his back and out of his stomach. The young trainer feebly grasped one of his pokeballs…unsure which one and unable to think in the pain he was in. “G…G…Go…” Ash whispered before clicking the release button._

_With a blast of red energy Charizard appeared with a roar. The Kanto starter huffed in annoyance at being called forth. Normally Ash only released him for a real fight. The fire dragon glanced back at his master before roaring in surprise. A Beedrill was currently working to remove its giant stinger from Ash. The pokemon angrily buzzing in annoyance not even realizing the danger it was in._

_With a challenging roar Charizard raked his claws across the Beedrill. The attack was so strong the claws ripped right through Beedrill’s exoskeleton and the pokemon’s innards were soon oozing through the broken shell. Charizard would have continued to rip the Beedrill to shreds but his attention was diverted from his task of utter destruction upon the dying body of Beedrill by Spearow._

_“Row!” The Spearow bravely cried out before dive bombing the large fire dragon to avenge its fallen comrade._

_Charizard roared back at the small bird before viciously letting loose a torrent of flame. The small bird was instantly consumed by the fire. The Spearow only had a moment to cry out in pain before the flames intensified and it was incinerated by the heat. The two Rocket trainers had only a moment to realize the trouble that they were in. The fire dragon’s eyes had gone red with rage when it realized his master was no longer moving._

_One of the Rocket trainers had enough intelligence to attempt to call forth another pokemon but it was all for naught. Charizard closed the distance by using his wings to push him forwards with an unexpected burst of speed. As the fire dragon passed in between the two Rocket thugs his claws swiped through each of the men’s throats releasing a fountain of blood from the two._

_Charizard released a torrent of flames into the air before roaring a challenge to anyone that would dare injury his master further. The dragon returned to his master’s side and looked upon in concern at Ash and Pikachu. His trainer’s face had taken on an ashen quality and Charizard was unsure how to assist his trainer. Pikachu was in dire straits like his master and Charizard ended up huffing in rage and annoyance that he could do nothing. It was rare the fire type felt so powerless but he could not heal like a Chansey. He let loose another roar of frustration at the situation…before deciding he had to find Leaf she was always nearby and would know what to do._

_Leaf gasped in shock as her plan fell apart. She had attempted to strike the two rock snakes with a devastating hydro cannon but the two snakes had weathered the attack and were currently pelting her Blastoise with a barrage of rocks. She kept Blastoise alive be having him withdraw into his shell and use Rapid Spin to throw off the attacks. Still she knew that if something didn’t happen soon she’d be in trouble the giant turtle couldn’t take hits like he was taking forever._

_Just as she was trying to come up with a strategy to get her out of this mess an unexpected appearance of Charizard saved her. The dragon appeared from above with a challenging roar. One of the Onix looked up just in time to see Charizard flying right at its head. With a vicious roar Charizard dug his back claws into what constituted as the rock snake’s neck. A moment later the dragon gripped the snake’s neck with his claws to hold it in place and released a torrent of flames that started to glow blue with power. The Onix roared in pain and started to flail around in distress as the rock that protected its brain started to melt. It was all for naught though no matter what the Onix did, Charizard refused to be denied his prize._

_After another blast of fire the remaining protection melted away and Charizard let out a victorious roar before letting loose one final blast of fire right into the struggling rock snake’s brain. Charizard let go of the giant snake and allowed the body to fall limp to the ground. The impact of the Onix falling to the ground let loose a small tremor. The rock segments that made up the snakes body slowly stopped churning until it became completely still never to rise again._

_The vicious attack of Charizard gave Leaf the opening she needed. With Blastoise free to attack the giant turtle finished off the other Onix with a Hydro Pump attack. By the time she had turned to deal with the Rocket thugs she realized that they were already dead. Charizard was mutilating their bodies with his sharp claws. Something had set Charizard off and for the giant fire dragon to fight to kill meant he was enraged._

_Minutes later Leaf followed Charizard to the site of Ash’s body. Leaf gasped the moment she realized the trouble that he was in. The only thing that had kept Ash alive had been the stinger that Beedrill had stabbed through his body which kept enough suction on the wound to keep him from completely bleeding out. “Oh Ash…” Leaf then saw Pikachu and realized that Charizard must have been released after Pikachu had been taken down. While Pikachu and Charizard always battled it out for the spot of Ash’s strongest pokemon, Charizard was hands down the toughest of Ash’s pokemon._

_Leaf glanced up upon hearing movement from the trees. She armed a pokeball and was ready to fight but luckily it was Kanto Rangers that burst through the foliage._

_“We’ve got two survivors over here!” One of the Rangers called out over the radio before running over to the pair._

_One of the others gently moved her away from Ash’s body. While the first one radioed for a medical evacuation._

_Leaf could only standby with the Rangers that were keeping the area secured while a medical team responded and patched Ash up enough to move him. The medical team stabilized the young man but was forced to leave the giant stinger in Ash to keep him from bleeding out along with most of the Beedrill’s body. Luckily Pikachu was in slightly better condition and the small pokemon was able to be recalled into his pokeball and put into stasis mode to keep him from dying._

_It seemed to take forever for the small team to load Ash onto the stretcher but when they did the small team of Rangers moved them out of the area quickly. While the medical team went ahead the Rangers along with Leaf and the trainer that had the Mankey took up the rear. The trainer that had been fighting with the Paras had lost the fight and had been killed prior to the arrival of the Rangers. Behind the group the city of Fuchsia was still being contested. Ranger reinforcements had arrived and although Team Rocket had the entire gym of Fuchsia on their side the citizens were fighting pitched battles in resistance. In the end though the Rangers would be driven from Fuchsia City and the League would lose their first city in a line of many towns and cities on the East side of Kanto to Team Rocket._

_It was a few weeks later when Ash finally awoke from his medically induced coma that his Doctor had kept him in to help heal his body faster. When he finally did wake up it was to the sight of Leaf’s upper body resting on the edge of his bed. Her hair was mussed from her odd choice of sleeping arrangements and her clothing was wrinkled from being worn for a few days._

_A small smile made its way to Ash’s face. Even though he felt like he had been through the blender just seeing Leaf there made him feel warm on the inside. A funny feeling even made it to his stomach area…though perhaps it was from the giant hole still there. He glanced down to see a giant wrap around his abdomen. He reached his hand out hesitantly towards Leaf and almost brought it to Leaf’s head but at the last second he withdrew and touched her hand instead._

_Leaf stirred for a moment and nuzzled her face deeper into the blanket on the edge of the bed. Then as if hit by a bolt of lightning she shot up when she realized that Ash was touching her hand. “Ash…are you alright?” She whispered unable to believe he had pulled through the near fatal wound he had received._

_A soft chuckle left Ash’s frame as he had never seen Leaf this concerned with his welfare that turned into a cough and then a wince of pain. Ash settled for a slight nod instead since he felt as if his stomach as about to break apart. “Yeah…I’m fine I just feel like I got run over by an Onix.” Then a thought suddenly occurred to him with great effort he managed to get himself up to a sitting position. A concerned look crossed Ash’s face at the thought of his partner. “Where’s Pikachu!”_

_“Pikachu’s fine Ash. He recovered about a week ago from his injuries. You’ve been out for three weeks.” Leaf answered with a small smile on her face. “I was worried Ash…I was really worried you weren’t going to make it you big dummy.” Her voice started to thicken up a little as tears started to gather in her eyes._

_“I’m alright Leaf…see I’m still here.” Ash tentatively responded. Normally Leaf was not an emotional girl so he was not used to comforting emotional women even though his mother normally broke down on a regular basis in excitement over his achievements._

_“Just promise you aren’t going to do that ever again.” Without warning she suddenly leaned in and kissed Ash on the lips. Immediately after she withdrew from Ash’s lips a blush spread across both of their faces. After a moment to gather herself, Leaf quietly coughed nervously before standing up. “I better tell your mom you’re awake.”_

_Ash watched as Leaf disappeared from the room. He wasn’t sure what just happened but he knew that he liked it._

“Hey…how ya doin Ashy Boy.” Gary’s voice cut through Ash’s day dreaming like a shotgun blast. The young Ranger almost jumped in surprise which caused the young researcher to laugh aloud.

“I didn’t think you’d scare that easily.” Gary chuckled before lighting up a cigarette and plopping it into his mouth. A stream of smoke rose up and disappeared into the wind.

Ash chuckled a little while continuing to stare out at the ocean. “You caught me at a bad time is all.”

“Hm.” Gary nodded absently while staring out at the ocean in the distance just as Ash was doing. “Thinking about Leaf again?”

“Am I that obvious?” Ash responded a slightly amused tone shining through.

“Only when you’re living the past.” Gary said in a slightly regretful tone. He leaned forward and took the cigarette out of his mouth letting it burn away in the wind just a tad before shoving it into the corner of his mouth.

A slight frown crossed Ash’s face before he answered his tone dropping a little in annoyance. “We’ve been over this Gary. I’m not ready.”

“Are you sure…you sure seemed ready last night from what I saw.” Gary responded lightly.

“That…that was a mistake.” Ash responded with little conviction in his voice. “I told Cynthia I can’t commit…she deserves better.”

“Sometimes the best things in life are mistakes.” Gary ventured with a slightly wistful look in his voice. “Sometimes you don’t even know it but what you think is a mistake is what you were looking for the entire time.”

“Well this was still a mistake.” Ash responded with a grunt. “Leaf is who I love and I don’t want to ever give her up.”

“You don’t need to give her up Ash. You just need to let Cynthia in.” Gary responded in kind with a slight edge entering his voice. “Besides would Leaf want you to live this half life you force on yourself. Forever trying to repent for something you can’t control and further punishing yourself by pushing everyone away.”

“Hn.” Ash responded half heartedly even though deep down he was considering what Gary said.

“Look Ash…I’m not going to argue with you. You are responsible for your own life but don’t throw away a great girl like Cynthia because you refuse to move on.” Gary took a quick drag of his cigarette. “And don’t you dare use Leaf as an excuse…she’d understand. Hell if she was here she’d beat the fucking shit out of you…maybe you need it.”

“Maybe…” Ash muttered more to himself than Gary.

“All I’m saying is that you better not expect Cynthia to put up with your shit like every other girl.” Gary responded. “For once you’re actually dating a girl out of your league and she knows it. You fuck this up she will walk because believe me she is settling.”

“She’s not settling!” Ash responded hotly before realizing what he said and clammed up with a petulant look crossing his face. He hated it when Gary got the better of him but it happened more often than not.

“Oh…is she…me thinks the lady doth protest too much.” Gary responded in a cheeky tone a slight smirk accompanying his tone.

“Shut up…not like you know anything about girls.” Ash responded with giving Gary the finger.

“Oh ho ho…” Gary chuckled. “Just because I haven’t ever been in a long term relationship doesn’t mean I don’t know what to do with a woman. Believe me if I had a chance with Cynthia I wouldn’t lose her due to something that happened years ago.” Gary added quietly.

“You may know about women but you’ve never lost the love of your life.” Ash responded harshly. His eyes narrowing slightly but never broke contact with the ocean. He was fighting the urge to deck Gary.

“I never claimed I did.” Gary responded before he let his upper body sag against the bow’s rail. The cigarette dangling from Gary’s mouth precariously close to falling out and ending up in the vast ocean below. “Once again I’m here to help you out. I’ve seen how you to look at each other. She likes you a lot…and she may not respond how Leaf responded to you but maybe that’s a good thing. You need something to live for other than your need to repent. You constantly get into situations that almost kill you because you have nothing to live for.”

“I don’t want to die.” Ash calmly responded.

“Yeah but you don’t go out of your way to avoid it.” Gary countered. “I’ve seen you fight and you take unnecessary risks. Put yourself in dangerous situations because you don’t think of anyone but yourself.”

“It’d just get me to Leaf faster. Stop trying to be my mom…she’s dead too. In fact everyone that has ever loved me for me has died.” Ash muttered unhappily.

“Oh.” Gary drew himself back up to an upright position and rounded on his best friend. “You know you have people that still love you and care about you. I care about you, Gramps loves you like a second grandson, Red treats you like his son, and Cynthia certainly loves you.”

“No she doesn’t.” Ash’s voice hitched a little his eyes downcast. “She could never love me after what I’ve done.”

“When are you going to realize there was nothing you could do to stop it?” Gary responded hotly. “I can’t save you from your own insecurities but you both seem pretty fucked up…if you walk away from her you’ll be dead in the next few months. I don’t want you to die but you need something to fight for and if you don’t find it in Cynthia I don’t think you will.” Gary paused for a moment before he stood up and once again took another drag of his cigarette. “I guess I’ve said my piece. I’d like to think you respect me enough to listen to me but…hey what do I know. Not like I cared about Leaf per your logic. Just remember…she was my best friend as well. You don’t have exclusive rights to what she would think about how you are acting. You can deny it all you want but you’re being a spoiled asshat about the entire situation.” With that parting shot, Gary left.

A few minutes later Cynthia took a seat next to Ash where Gary had been sitting a few minutes prior. Neither said a word to each other at first both staring out into the ocean. Finally Cynthia broke the silence. “Ash…we need to talk.” The infamous words that always proceeded a break up speech.

 

A/N: Well anyway hope you liked the chapter. Read and Review please I always like reading and responding to a review usually by PM.

Name Under Construction: May/Paul appears to be right behind Gary/May. I will leave the poll open until I get around to a meeting of May with the group again. I understand where you’re coming from and you make a good point. So hopefully it will work out in the favor of May/Paul fans. I am open to both since I can make either work but I get your point. Just remember this is a slightly more dangerous world and at the time I was thinking about Max becoming a regular travel partner.

Xerzo LotCN: I would have loved to keep him alive but I need Ash to be uncontrollable…that and as much as Duplica is a crazy bitch I love writing her. I find I incorporate her a lot just because she is such a wild card half the time.


	19. Slateport City - Magic Guard

A/N: So sorry to say guys I’ve had massive writer’s block as I didn’t really know what to do with the Ash/Cynthia talk so I put it off for now. Sorry for the super short chapter but I mostly wanted to write a quick little teaser trailer for what is to come in the next chapter. I’m up and writing The Burning Nightmare again sooooo yeaaaaah. Sorry about the long delay. You can all thank Ace of Spies for getting me motivated in.

Ash’s pokemon currently on hand:

Charizard

Arcanine

Pikachu

Sceptile

Lucario

Gengar

Chapter 19 – Slateport City – Magic Guard

Slateport City -

“Ash! Ash! You’ve got to stop this!” Steven yelled as he threw his hand up to keep the flying bits of dust and dirt from hitting his eyes. Large red bands of energy seemed to generate from where Ash stood. Like the eye of the storm the young trainer seemed unaffected by the tremendous amount of wind the bands of Aura seemed to kick up.

“Please you have to listen to me!” Steven called out against the wind in a futile attempt to reach the young man. The large pulses of Aura started to push Steven back. Even with Metagross there to keep him up with its psychic powers he was hard pressed not to be blown away.

From where he stood it seemed that Ash was literally leaking Aura from most of his body. It was all he could do not to turn away in fear when Ash Ketchum finally turned his gaze towards him. Ash’s eyes were glowing blood red, the Aura almost made it look like he was wearing a mask. The wispy strains of Aura were flowing out the sides of his eyes and into the wind.

It looked like a demon from hell and there was nothing he could do to even get any closer than he already was. Metagross was barely able to keep him from being blown away and he could tell the pokemon had dug itself into the concrete to keep from blowing away.

The view of Ash was suddenly cut off by the appearance of Mewtwo phasing into place. If he hadn’t met the pseudo-legendary psychic earlier he’d probably have freaked out. Instead he looked at the pokemon imploringly as he attempted to gesture towards Ash. All he managed to do was move his hand a fraction of an inch due to the incredible pressure coming from the maelstrom. “You’ve got to stop him!”

Mewtwo studied Steven for a moment, his face impassive as he turned to stare at Ash. The Aura was released…this is what Red and Lance had always feared. Even Ash knew if he ever got to this point it’d be debatable if he’d survive. Even if he survived his sanity may not make it out intact. An explosion of every ounce of Aura in his body at once would cause something akin to a nuclear blast. It would make Cinnabar Island look like nothing more than a mere temper tantrum of a child. Mewtwo shook his head before turning back to Steven. His voice echoed throughout Steven’s head. _“It is much too late for that. Retreat Steven…I’ll save as many as I can.”_

Moments before Steven could even respond he felt his body become weightless, he had felt this before. Mewtwo was using teleport on him and Metagross. The steel pokemon started to float into the air against its will. In a flash he reappeared outside of the city limits with Metagross by his side. The sturdy pokemon seemed to be just as confused as its trainer. A moment later more people started to appear.

They kept building in number as they were randomly flashed in, in any unused space. It was less than a minute later that Mewtwo appeared again visibly exhausted from his continuous use of his powers to remove people from danger. Without looking around Steven knew this wasn’t everyone. In a city of 18.6 million there was no way even Mewtwo could save everyone.

And in a moment the 9th largest city in the pokemon world disappeared in a blink of an eye. Steven and the rest of the Hoenn Rangers that had been staging to retake the city from Team Magma watched as an expanding dome of energy reached out in a final bright flash that caused many to shield their eyes. Buildings appeared hazy at first then like an early morning fog being burned away from the sun, the building just disappeared into a mist.

The waves of energy were starting to reach the men and women of the League and the survivors of Slateport City. Steven had the presence of mind to come up with a defense lest the work of Mewtwo be in vain. “Rangers! Use Reflect and Light Screen to protect the civilians from the incoming waves!”

A moment later large swathes of psychic energy started to layer on top of each other to create a wall against the incoming wave of destruction. It was Mewtwo’s addition of Reflect that kept the destructive waves of red Aura from killing the Rangers and townspeople.

Some on the edges were not so lucky as their pokemon’s barrier or light screen failed. Others had not managed to get behind the wall of energy in time. Their screams rent the air for only a moment before they were scorched to a crisp. Blackened bodies fell to the ground, the person’s body managed to save the grass or ground beneath and left a human sized shape untouched, the only sign that they ever existed. The winds of the attack that Ash generated flattened the surrounding trees and destroyed the roads and bridges. The flames of the Aura force burned the air and hungrily ate at the oxygen until it ran out of steam.

Just as it came the wave of power disappeared in a flash. Steven breathed a sigh of relief as the pressure seemed to disappear just as soon as it had come. He chanced a look to survey the damage of Slateport City. The scene that greeted him almost caused him to throw up as the realization hit him. There was nothing left but scorched earth and some smoldering foundations. From where he stood he could see clear across to the other side of the city. There was nothing left to impede his view.

It was a day that no one would forget in Hoenn or the world. It was the year 2026…September 28th at 11:35 in the morning when The Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar obliterated Slateport City and killed over 16 million souls that resided in the city. Among those that died Captain Stern, Harley, and Team Magma’s entire command structure including Maxie, Courtney, Tabitha, and Blaise.

 It would be decades before Hoenn would fully recover from the economic loss that it incurred by losing a city that functioned as the bridge between the mainland and the island towns to the East. It also was Hoenn’s port to the world. Most their trade passed through Slateport from the other countries and with the city destroyed and the ports unusable it made it nearly impossible to keep the infrastructure intact as production and trade was moved to other cities and towns.

The human capital lost nearly crippled the entire Hoenn region. While some of the younger generation from Slateport escaped death due to being out on their pokemon journey it didn’t make up for the millions of people and trainers from Hoenn that were visiting Slateport City at the time. Even with Magma attempting to wrest control of the city from the League it still drew people in with the access to Slateport Market.

It was also the day that Ash Ketchum, The Burning Nightmare disappeared from the world. The search teams from the League could not find any trace of the young man in the remains of Slateport City.  The only thing left was a partially burnt vest to signify that he had ever been there.

 

A/N: I know, I am literally the worst. 


	20. Slateport City - Wonder Skin

A/N: So yeah obviously setting this up for potential semi-sequels and prequels since I can do a whole story on the Rocket Wars or the Kanto Succession Wars during the five year time skip not to mention what happened to Ash.

This would have been out faster but I got my first mega cold/super flu/gonna die soon/please make it stop sickness of the Fall.

Slateport City: Wonder Skin

Five Years after the Slateport City incident

Kanto Region

Gary sucked in another breathe of nicotine as he stared at the graves before him in the small Pallet Town graveyard. He had been burying too many friends and family. In fact if not for Dawn he wasn’t completely sure if he’d still be here, the girl had pulled his ass out of the fire more than once. First Leaf then Ash, fittingly he had managed to put Ash’s grave beside Leaf’s grave, not that there was any body to bury.

A little further down Gramps was buried next to Delhi Ketchum, again it was something that he found fitting. The old man had been killed defending Pallet Town. He had managed to take down almost all the invaders but he had pushed himself too far. It was because of him of course…he was too weak and his grandfather had bought him time to call for help. Lance’s grave was of course at the Indigo League along with a memorial. The man had led the charge against the remaining Elite Four in Agatha’s control. He supposed in a way it was fitting but it still left him empty. If not for Brock and Dawn he didn’t know where he’d be. With Ash gone the group had quickly disbanded and fallen apart. Happy endings had been few and far between for those in Kanto.

Gary glanced back to Ash’s grave. They searched for weeks in the surrounding area of Hoenn. At least until Steven was forced to declare them enemies of the state. Gary couldn’t blame the man, Steven was pressured by the people of Hoenn. After what Ash did to Slateport the man didn’t have much choice. Cynthia being the leader of Sinnoh was given a free pass to stay. Declaring her an enemy of the state would more or less put Hoenn at war with Sinnoh. She stayed on for another few months in a vain attempt to find any sign of Ash.

From time to time he would still get updates from Cynthia, the girl still hadn’t given up hope that Ash wasn’t just resting somewhere. He didn’t have the luxury of believing in the fact that Ash was somehow still alive. Mewtwo had confirmed that he could not detect Ash any longer. The pseudo-legendary had described it as if he had lost a limb. At first it had been painful but over time the blunt force trauma of losing his connection with Ash dulled to an ache.

It was only a few days after Ash died that Mewtwo had disappeared. The pseudo-legendary didn’t say goodbye to anyone. Not that Gary would have expected anything less from Mewtwo. It wasn’t like the pokemon actually belonged to anyone. Like every legendary pokemon it would work with humans it considered worthy but they would never truly submit. The power of a legendary was too strong for even a Master Ball to contain for long. Now and again Mewtwo would reappear but usually only to speak with him or sometimes Cynthia.

Gary lifted the cigarette up and took another draw of the toxic chemicals into his lungs. It still surprised him sometimes. Instead of a normal hand all he saw was a glittering black hand made of titanium. It was a souvenir from Misty that he received from the Kanto Succession Wars. Five god damn bloody years of battle before the combined Loyalist forces managed to put Agatha down. It was a miracle when Red returned with Blue of all people. His brother had all but disappeared after the Rocket Wars without a so much as a how do you do. The two had rained down death and destruction upon most of Agatha’s forces.

The sound of footsteps broke his reprieve into his memories. A light smile danced across his lips. Of course he knew that Dawn couldn’t stay away for long. She knew if she let him wallow too long alone in the graveyard he’d lose track of time and probably stay there all night.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Dawn asked in a sing song voice as she approached her now husband from behind. The blunette let out an annoyed sigh at the sight of the cigarette resting in his metal hand. Honestly if she had yelled at him once she had yelled at him a million times. It still bothered her but she knew to pick her battles. The cigarettes while annoying were a losing battle. She followed Gary’s eyes to the grave he was staring at. Ash Ketchum, the Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar and the one that had destroyed Slateport City, the man was infamous for the sheer destruction and cost of human life he represented.

“Just looking after some old friends is all. I still can’t believe that out of all of them, I’m the only one that survived all of the fighting.” Gary shook his head once more. It was amazing that he had made it out alive. Pallet town had lost too many legendary trainers during the past two wars, three if you counted the war still taking place in Hoenn.

“I’m glad you survived…I miss them too…well Gramps and Lance. You know…” Dawn said as she looped her arm around Gary’s right arm and leaned against the young professor of Pallet Town and official professor for Southern region of Kanto for all new pokemon trainers. She never met the rest. Leaf and Ash only lived through Gary’s words. Brock she unfortunately knew a little too well but Cynthia and Paul she only really knew about through Gary despite being from Sinnoh.

“Hn.” Gary made a non-committal grunt as he flicked the cigarette away with his metal fingers. It bounced away onto the dirt and quickly smoldered out until only small wisps of smoke rose from where it landed. While he knew Dawn understood it still hurt that he had no one to talk to anymore that knew Ash personally other than Cynthia. To be honest talking with Cynthia was awkward as she still hadn’t moved on so it left him with Paul and that man was busy with May in Hoenn. Not to mention Paul rarely wanted to shoot the breeze with Gary.

“Any word from Wallace regarding Aqua Rocket?” Gary went on finally breaking from his thoughts. He still kept up to date with Hoenn as the region was still in a state of chaos. The destruction of Slateport City had effectively split the region in half. Team Aqua had quickly moved to consolidate their forces far from the league. With Ever Grande City firmly in league control the Eastern half of the continent including Mossdeep City, Sootopolis City, and Lilycove City had all been under the league’s reach and therefore remained protected.

Aqua had quickly launched a series of lightning strikes from their main base in Dewford Town and had quickly taken Petalburg City, Oldale Town, and Littleroot Town. The league had held for a few months in Rustboro City mainly as a last ditch effort to move most of the Devon Corporation out of the city. Aqua had quickly taken the left over tech and converted it to their uses. From there they pushed North and took Fallarbor Town. It only took them a few months to take the last major city in the West.

Once Mauville City fell, the renegades simply waited out the small towns of Verdanturf and Lavaridge to run out of supplies from the League. Completely cut off from any assistance the two eventually caved and became Aqua Rocket run cities. It was little more than a year after the destruction of Slateport City that the region of Hoenn was effectively cut into two states. A few months after that Koga made his move and the leaders of Aqua were killed. Team Aqua became Aqua Rocket. It was rumored the only thing keeping Aqua Rocket from achieving their goals was that the legendary pokemon they were looking for and the way to control said creature were firmly in League held territory. 

 The entire situation left Fortree City as one of the only contested zones. Mainly due to the fact their neither Aqua nor the League could quickly move reinforcements to the city and as it held little strategic value it was mainly left to its own devices. It also left Winona in an awkward position and mainly had to beg both the League and Aqua for supplies as she was cut off from her normal supply lines.

Meanwhile Pacifidlog Town fell to the Hoenn Aura Guardians. The town was not large enough to stage attacks on the mainland for the League and there was again not enough of a reason for Aqua to pursue it as a means to reach out at any of the four league held Eastern cities. So it became the undisputed territory of the Aura Guardians.

All and all the entire situation was a complete mess and in the five years including the four in which the Kanto Succession Wars took place there had been little movement from either side other than some exploratory strikes. Both sides were firmly entrenched but there were rumors that Team Aqua had found a way to control one of the legendary creatures that had been mentioned on the Aqua Command Ship. From what Wallace’s spies said, Aqua Rocket was currently working on a way to use it to break the League’s hold on the last remaining city on the main continent.

“He recently placed a call to Red requesting reinforcements but that is all but impossible based on the losses that Kanto suffered.” Dawn shrugged helplessly as she looked up at Gary. There was so little she could do being that she was a Sinnoh native. Even after taking over the Viridian City gym from Blue she still didn’t have much say. It was mostly due to the fact that most of the Kanto and Johto gym leaders still considered her an outsider and looked for ways any of Dawn’s propositions could potentially benefit Sinnoh. Due to that she mainly kept her own counsel unless directly asked by Red or Blue.

“If we don’t send some kind of help down there and Aqua Rocket gets control of one of those Legendary pokemon, we’re going to be in some serious trouble. Especially if the Hoenn League falls and Aqua Rocket gains control of an entire continent.” Gary sighed in annoyance. This is what he hated about the League. While it was better than being under the mercy of Team Rocket or Aqua Rocket it still was a pain. Every gym leader had a vote and every god damn gym leader with a few notable exceptions blocked any motion that Red brought to the floor to help Hoenn. Sometimes he wondered if they really were better off.

“I just wish that Red would declare a state of emergency like he did during the Rocket Wars and the Succession Wars to just end all of this bickering.” Gary grumbled petulantly.

“You know he can’t do that. Although at the last meeting he informed us that he would be talking with Unova and Sinnoh to form a coalition to help reinforce Hoenn.” Dawn volunteered as she guided Gary down the small path and away from the graves.

“Didn’t know that Unova and Sinnoh were talking again.” Gary said as he let himself be led towards the entrance of the Pallet Town grave yard. Last he heard there was still lingering resentment over the actions that Team Galactic had taken against the Unova trainers all those years ago. While Sinnoh and Unova had worked to contain both of their home grown terrorist units, it turned out that was what Red was busy with all those years ago.

It was why Red hadn’t returned at the very start to end Agatha and why Mewtwo was always busy. The two were curbing Team Galactic’s ambitions and keeping not only Sinnoh safe but the entire world. While Team Galactic had mainly been wiped out, Red was still busy cleaning up the mess left over from the entire ordeal.

“Well…apparently Brock went over there to try and smooth things over.” Dawn giggled at the mention of the Pewter City gym leader and main diplomatic envoy of the Kanto region. They were all trying to wrap their heads around that one.

“I still don’t understand how the manwhore managed to become our best diplomat. It’s like Red wants a war.” Gary stated dryly. A slight shudder went down his spine at the thought that his fate and Kanto’s rested in Brock’s ability to keep other regions happy.

“From what Red said, Brock was successful. He met with Unova’s representative Caitlin of Unova’s elite four and Candice the gym leader of Snowpoint City and Sinnoh’s representative.” Dawn added with a small smirk. It still bothered Gary for some reason that Brock was such a ladies man. Her husband claimed the man used to be a total loser and couldn’t get a girl to touch him but he had always been rather suave the entire time she knew him.

“He banged his way to peace?” Gary deadpanned with a look of mild disgust on his face. Seriously…what the hell was this world coming to? “Open warfare between two counties was literally stopped by Brock being a manwhore…just…just…”

“What?” Dawn prodded with a small smirk.

“Fucking unbelievable. We should be engaging in political discourse between our neighboring regions and working together for the common good not settling our differences with a three way.” Gary groused.

“You’re just jealous you’re not as smooth as Brock.” Dawn giggled. “You just can’t pull in the ladies like he can.”

“I swear some gypsy must have cast the worst curse ever. Maybe she cast a curse that he’d never be able to get lucky with a girl again. The curse must have canceled out his already terrible luck and actually made him a ladies man.” Gary attempted to reason out the why and the how of Brock’s luck with the ladies. He couldn’t pinpoint the time that Brock’s luck turned around but it was during the Successions Wars. It was all very suspicious and he didn’t rule out Brock paying off Mewtwo somehow.

“I’m telling you, you’re delusional. Brock is just such a sweet talker, maybe you need to take some lessons from him!” Dawn laughed before pulling away from her husband, satisfied that he’d head home momentarily.

“Hey!” Gary cried as he almost lost his balance as Dawn pulled away from him suddenly. He groused silently at Dawn’s words. Scratch that, clearly Brock was replaced by an alien if he actually had women speaking in his favor. If not for the fact that he saw Duplica die in front of him he’d half think that Brock was replaced by the psychotic bitch.

She made it a half step away before turning around with a grin. “Look handsome, I just needed to pull you out of your funk. I need to pick something up at the pokemon center, then I’m headin home. Don’t forget the video meeting with Indigo later!”

“How could I forget…” Gary grumbled as he watched his wife flounce away without a care in the world. He was about to follow when he heard the sound of the bells Ash had hung up for Leaf jingle in the wind. It had been years since he last heard the bells. Even in the breeze they had gone silent after Ash’s passing. It caused him to come to a complete stop before slowly turning around. He didn’t know what he was expecting.

“You’re losin it Oak.” Gary shook his head in disbelief. What was he expecting? To see some kind of corny ghostly image of Leaf and Ash holding hands by their graves to indicate that they had found peace. That kinda sappy shit only happened in movies. Despite his internal monologue he still found himself looking back.

Just as expected the tree by the grave of Ash and Leaf only contained their graves. No after images or indications that they were somehow watching over him or caused the wind chimes attached to the tree to move. After a moment he gave up his staring contest with the tree and absently drew his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. With a quick tap to his thigh he grabbed the cigarette that slid out of the box and lit it up.

After all this time he kept expecting Ash and Leaf to just reappear and tell him it had been a joke all along. It almost made him want to call his sister…almost. Daisy had never come back from her research post in Sinnoh even after Gramp’s death. They still had their disagreements but he couldn’t blame her for leaving Kanto during the Rocket Wars. Gramps had even encouraged it at the time but now he really wished he had her back. From what he understood she had taken up with Red and the man was adamant about keeping her away from Hoenn, Kanto and Johto for the time being. He couldn’t exactly blame Red for that line of thinking but he still missed her and Blue wasn’t exactly full of comfort.

His morose thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of his C-Gear. The item was the most advanced on the market and came from Unova. With Silph Co. still recovering from the Succession Wars not to mention the Rocket Wars and the Devon Corp more or less in shambles, people turned to Sinnoh and Unova for technological advances. Gary being a researcher had to have the newest pokedex and gear created to keep up with the other regions. He glanced down at his wrist to see an incoming call from Cynthia. Normally he would have sent her to the voicemail function due to the fact he was due in to the league within an hour but his curiosity got the better of him.

“The amazing and handsome Gary Oak at your service!” Gary answered with an embellished sense of enthusiasm that he did not feel at all due to what he was just thinking about. He shot Cynthia a confident smirk the moment her picture came up on his screen. The eye roll he received from the current champion of Sinnoh was expected.

“Gary, I think I’ve figured out what happened to Ash!” Cynthia started without even bothering to say hello to her longtime friend.  

“Not this again Cynthia.” Gary uttered with a sigh that bordered on annoyed. It was always like this. Cynthia would find some vague mention in her research and she’d believe Ash was sent to the future or to the past depending on what she found. It was almost sad for Gary in a way, every time Cynthia would get her hopes up, only to have them dashed when her theory didn’t pan out. He got tired of the highs and lows that the poor girl put herself through.

“This time I’m sure of it!” Cynthia attempted to cut in before Gary started any of his protests. She had done everything to make sure that she was correct. It was the only thing that made sense. Bodies don’t just disappear. There was always some evidence left over and she was sure she was right. All of the calculations confirmed her theory.

“Just like the last time and the time before that. Cynthia…when is this going to end? He’s gone Cynthia, just move on. The rest of us have and I can’t keep going down this same road.” Gary asked with a sigh as he glanced down at his watch. It hurt a little, she looked so excited…just like every other time.

“Gary, it’s the only thing that makes sense! It must have been a Celebi. It rumored that it passes through time and there are stories of those caught in the temporal distortion travel with it to a new time.” Cynthia continued in an attempt to get Ash’s oldest friend to listen to her.

Gary grunted before bringing his cigarette up to take another inhale of the nicotine in an attempt to alleviate his stress. “Cynthia, don’t you think if that was the case that Ash would have found a way back to us by now? Not that I’m even going to entertain your theory before you get excited but even if it was true. Ash would have found a way back by now.”

“Not if he was sent somewhere in the past where they didn’t have the technology they have today. He would have had to figure out how to find Celebi again on his own. The pokemon follows a pattern and if he missed it the first time it may be years before it reappeared and he’d have another shot at it! Alternatively he could have ended up in a future that is still at war. He may not have been able to get through to the appearance site of Celebi in time.” Cynthia almost rambled on knowing that Gary would stop her at any moment. This time though she needed him to believe her. The last few theories hadn’t panned out but that was what science was about, testing your theories to ultimately find the answer.

“Cynthia...just.” Gary looked away from the image of the Sinnoh champion on his wrist and contemplated what he’d say next. No matter what, it wouldn’t dissuade the woman from her current notion. When this first started up he’d research for hours and even go out to Sinnoh to explore the information she’d found. The civil war got worse and he was needed at home more and more. Once Gramps died he couldn’t justify leaving any longer and stopped responding to most of her requests.

“If you need access to Gramp’s archives feel free to look through them. That’s the most assistance I can give you.”

“Gary…I really need some assistance on this one. If we can track down Celebi maybe we can reason with it.” Cynthia attempted once more to get her friend and Ash’s best friend still living to assist her with her work to retrieve Ash. Even if the rumors were true that there was just once Celebi that traveled the globe, she could give it the information to return Ash. Even if it was from the future it could leave the information for its past self next time it jumped into the past. The one that would retrieve Ash would find the information eventually. So she hoped.

“Cynthia, I can’t spare the time even if I wanted to. Hoenn is a powder keg that is ready to explode. I have a feeling that Red will be sending me over there with Dawn to help Wallace out. If you can find Mewtwo…maybe he’d be willing to help but I haven’t seen him since Slateport.” Gary ventured as he started walking out of the graveyard and heading up the path that would take him back to the Lab.

 

Sinnoh – Sinnoh League Cathedral

 

“Right…well good luck Gary. Keep in touch” Cynthia responded with a sad smile before she cut the connection between the two. She knew it was only a matter of time before the two would lose what little connection they had. She hated to admit it but their friendship was in a slow spiral of decay. Ash had always been what connected them all but the longer he was gone the harder it was. 

The moment the connection was cut she leaned back in her chair and looked over at her computer. The signs all pointed to the next appearance of Celebi. Everything was pointing to Hoenn. It looked like she would be seeing Gary sooner than expected. It would be dangerous though. The location appeared to be in Aura Guardian territory and it would mean she’d have to convince Lucian to go.

What a right mess this was. The Aura Guardians would not take kindly to her invading their territory. After what Ash did to Slateport City, the Aura Guardians were considered enemies of the state. People feared what they didn’t understand. What they didn’t understand was what happened to Slateport City and so they grabbed onto what they did, someone that had the power of Aura caused the destruction of an entire city.

It started innocently at first, protests and demonstrations. The Aura Guardians around the globe were forced to retreat to their bases. Eventually the people decided that keeping them away from the general population wasn’t enough. They wanted the Aura Guardians gone. No one wanted what happened to Slateport City to happen to them. The Guardians were forced out of their outposts across the world through force.

Violent clashes took place that ended in the deaths of both Guardians and civilians alike. Eventually the Leagues of the region stepped in and followed Kanto and Johto in their exile and ban of any Aura Guardians. There was some resistance but since the other regions were not at war, they were able to devote their resources to removing the Guardians. The only area unable to remove the Aura Guardians was ironically the region that started the rampant fear throughout the other regions. Hoenn stuck in a war with Team Aqua at the time were unable to devote time or resources to hunting down the Guardians.

It seemed the Guardians decided that to survive they needed to carve out their own territory. They recalled their surviving Guardians and took control of the small islands surrounding Pacifidlog Town. While they largely went unbothered by the League and by Aqua Rocket, they did defend their territory with a vengeance. Any group that attacked or invaded them soon found themselves overwhelmed by the Aura Guardians. They used their Aura to identify intruders well before the intruders realized that they had been discovered.

The only way that Cynthia knew to slip by their iron defense was by using a psychic type pokemon to shield her. It would have to be a high level psychic type that could keep up a barrier to keep from being discovered. Now it would be a chore to convince Lucan to come along with her to find Ash but it could be done. She’d try Paul but he was busy as Sinnoh’s envoy in Hoenn.  

Speak of the devil, Cynthia smiled the moment that Lucian came through the door.

“I know that look, what are you thinking about now?” Lucian asked as he looked up from the book he was currently reviewing. It was information on the Celebi and the appearance patterns of said pokemon.

The master of psychic type pokemon in the Sinnoh region absently pushed his glasses up from the bridge of his nose. The glasses were purple in color and could be easily mistaken for sunglasses. They even matched his long wavy lavender colored hair and eyes. As usual he wore his normal burgundy red suit and black button down shirt with the top two buttons open that went along with the black shoes.

“What would you think of a little field trip?” Cynthia queried with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“I’m assuming this is connected to Celebi?” Lucian responded before snapping his book shut. While he didn’t have the connection that Cynthia had to this Ash fellow he was always one for solving a good mystery. If what Cynthia theorized was correct, this could potentially confirm people’s theory of Celebi’s ability to time travel.

“You using your psychic abilities or am I just that obvious?” Cynthia responded as she brought up the information on the location of Celebi’s next approximate appearance location. Right after she brought said information up she turned the monitor towards Lucian.

Lucian hummed noncommittally as he wandered a little closer to the information that Cynthia had up on the monitor. After leaning in he quickly figured out the location that Cynthia had predicted that Celebi would next appear at. He glanced up at Cynthia in askance at the location. If it was correct it’d be a pain to get into but not impossible.

“You realize that if we get caught we’ll have to fight our way out. There’s no way that the Hoenn League would come assist us.”

 “Which is why I need your psychic pokemon to keep us from being detected, Lucian. If Ash reappears like I think he will who knows what kind of condition he’ll be in. I’ll need someone with strong psychic powers to help control him and smuggle us back out.” Cynthia responded.

“Well if we’re going to make it by the time you’ve predicted Celebi’s appearance we’ll need to get moving now.” Lucian spoke as he leaned back from the information on the screen. This could be interesting. If they could actually prove the Celebi traveled through time he’d be able to publish research on the possibility of time travel. It’d be interesting to see if they could actually send messages and people into the future or the past.

 

Kanto Region – Oak’s Lab

 

“Where in all hells is that phone!” Gary groaned in annoyance as the annoying chirp echoed throughout his lab. The years since Professor Oak passing hadn’t helped the lab, in fact Professor Oak appeared downright organized compared to Gary Oak.

“Gary! Did you lose the phone again?” Dawn yelled out in annoyance from another room.

“NO!” Gary responded petulantly as he worked on rummaging through the stacks of paper on his desk for the video phone’s receiver portion. Why the hell did he even take it off the base anyway? Oh right he loved to walk and talk a lot. After a few more seconds of shoving paper around he realized the sound was coming from his mini fridge. With a groan he popped open the door to the small fridge by his desk. Lo and behold the phone sat there ringing in-between his sodas and frozen meals.

With a tap of his foot the small fridge was closed none being the wiser other than him. With a click he answered the phone and was satisfied to see the video portion pop up on the screen of the fixed base of the video phone.

“Gary, glad to see you’ve joined us.” Blue announced as his face popped up on Gary’s screen. The video quickly switched over to Dawn who was in the living room taking the call on her mobile device from the looks of it.

“Gary just lost his phone…again.”

“Can we just get to the point of this little chat?” Clair’s face popped up on the screen replacing Dawn with a slightly older dragon master that appeared haggard and worn.  The death of her cousin had taken a toll on the once young and promising up and coming Elite Four member. With the death of Lance, her ambitions died and now she rarely left her gym.

“Clair…” Jasmine interjected in an attempt to keep a fight from breaking out. For her part the gym leader of Olivine City hadn’t changed much even during the Kanto Succession Wars. Even after five years she still appeared young as ever. The wars hadn’t touched Olivine City the way it had rent destruction upon the rest of the region.

“Don’t even start Jasmine.” Clair bit back in a snide tone the picture once again flipping over to her.

“Hey lighten up!” Morty interjected. The ghost type specialist for the most part also remained unchanged. Dark circles rested under his eyes but it may have been more due to the time of day than any real stress.

“Morty…” Whitney attempted in a warning voice. The once pretty girl had a horrible scar across her face. They appeared to be talon marks from a flying pokemon and if one were to guess they’d be right. Falkner had attempted to wipe Bugsy out during the Kanto Succession Wars. It was a connection no one had thought of at first, that Falkner’s father Walker was best friends with Chuck. She had gotten there just in the nick of time to save most of the civilians. For Bugsy it had been too late. “There’s been enough fighting between all of us; there is no need to provoke any further contention.”

“I tire of listening to Johto’s internal issues. Can we get this meeting started?” Sabrina cut in. The image of the Saffron City gym leader popped up and replaced Whitney’s image. Much like Jasmine she had avoided most of the conflict. Whereas Jasmine had been sheltered by Morty, Pyrce, and even Whitney to an extent, Sabrina had done it through shrewd business dealings much like she had during the Rocket Wars.

“Like chill out…it isn’t like we’re any better. So just like slow your roll.” Daisy interjected.  The golden haired gym leader of Cerulean City appeared on screen. The death of Lily and Misty weighed on her over the years. While she had no visible scars on the outside her eyes held a haunted quality. After Misty had died during the Kanto Succession Wars, Daisy had taken over the gym as was her right.

“Seriously little Miss Neutral, not all of us could just barter supplies to keep everyone from invading. Some of us had to do get our hands dirty.” Violet followed up after her sister’s entrance. While Daisy had taken over Cerulean City gym, Violet younger and only other living sister of the once Cerulean City Sensational Sisters Four had taken over as the gym leader for Cianwood City. The younger of the two Sensational Sisters appeared slightly better than her older sister but she as well had eyes that had seen too much.

“Please, can we bring this meeting to order? Whitney is right, enough of the fighting amongst ourselves.” Erika appeared on the screen and replaced Violet. The Celadon City gym leader looked beautiful as ever. Behind her random grass types were wandering around what was once the gym’s expansive garden. The original gym had been destroyed during one of the last battles of the war. Now the entire gym was being rebuilt.

“Oi, shut up all of you. I’m calling this meeting to order.” Blue came over the video phone. The man with tousled brown hair popped on the screen. In fact the man looked a lot like an older version of Gary Oak. Of course since Blue was the older brother of Gary it made a lot of sense. There was even a running joke that Red was in fact the older brother of Ash Ketchum but it was well known that Red’s mother was still living in Pallet Town.

When Blue seemed satisfied that everyone would be silent and he could continue without suffering any further interruptions he continued. “Now as you all know Hoenn is in trouble. Wallace has indicated that Aqua Rocket may have control of a Legendary pokemon.”

The line immediately lit up with multiple people clamoring for attention at once. Gasps of shock and statements of outrage were traded over the information. The last known Legendary to be brought under human control was Moltres. The legendary firebird had been used to raze Cinnabar Island by Ash. Once it was freed from Mewtwo’s control the surrounding islands felt Moltre’s wrath until it disappeared to a new nesting place. The last thing anyone wanted was to be on the receiving end of another attempt successful or failed at controlling a Legendary.

“Settle down, yelling isn’t going to change the situation.” Pyrce cut in. The ice type master appeared on the screen with a near constant frown resting on his face.

“I warned you all that to ignore Hoenn would bring about danger to Kanto and Johto.” Blaine followed up with a grouse. Ever since the proposal had been brought up, Blaine had been a huge proponent of sending in Kanto and Johto Rangers to assist Hoenn.

“It doesn’t change the fact that we don’t have the Rangers to spare. We’re still trying to fill some of the Gym Leaders we lost. Vermillion City and Fuchsia City in Kanto are all but abandoned. Not to mention the fact that Violet City and Azalea Town sit empty in Johto with no clear successor. I don’t see how we can spare anyone.” Whitney spoke up.

“Our region’s Elite Four also aren’t at full strength. With only Red, Karen, and yourself, the other leagues see our combined region as weak, Blue. We can’t afford to send anyone from our Elite Four over either.” Erika chimed in, in agreement with Whitney’s assessment.

“We still have the Frontier Brains.” Jasmine offered in an attempt to support Blue. She saw the need for help to be sent to the Hoenn region.

“As if anyone trusts them after their part in the war. We all know they were posed to attack the League no matter who won. The only thing that stopped them was Red returning.” Clair cut in dismissively.

“All the more reason to send them to Hoenn.” Sabrina responded with a clinical smile that didn’t even touch her eyes.

“If they win we welcome them back as heroes, if they die we treat them as martyrs that died to help save the world.”

“While I don’t agree with Sabrina’s sentiment it may be wise to force Scott into a weakened position. If we send some of his Frontier Brains as part of a coalition force it’d be a lose, lose situation for him. If he agrees he will split his forces and be unable to move on the League. If he pushes back he’ll look bad to the people of Kanto.” Morty mused.

“Not you too Morty!” Jasmine interjected with a slight frown crossing her face. The idea of sacrificing anyone whether they were a threat or not wasn’t exactly appealing.

“But Jasmine, it makes sense. If any more gym leaders are taken away from their post the trainers won’t be able to gain enough badges to enter to battle the Elite Four.” Forrest finally chimed in. Probably the youngest gym leader after Bugsy died, the younger brother of Brock didn’t understand the politics involved.

“To be fair we’ll have to contact Palmer and request he send at least one of his Brains or else Scott will call foul. Palmer technically has a greater tie to our region than Scott.” Daisy pointed out.

“So it’s settled. We’ll request three of Scott’s Frontier Brains and one from Palmer. We will still need to send at least one of our own gym leaders. Even pleading hardship we’ll need to at least send a volunteer from Kanto and Johto.” Blue finally cut in and ended the debate of using the Battle Frontier Brains as potential sacrifices.

“Dawn, I’m selecting you for Kanto and Morty you’ll be our representative from Johto.” Blue declared without letting the two bicker about who would go.

“I figure Dawn will be a good choice since you’d probably follow Gary anyway since Hoenn needs all the help they can get in researching a way to stop a Legendary….and Morty…you’re just a lazy bum.” Blue ended with a smirk.

“Ah shit…can’t you send Clair or something? She’s more into the being the hero crap.” Morty grumbled at Blue’s voluntelling.

“I could, but you’re a lazy lay about that never seems to have anything better to do then travel to Olivine City and harass Jasmine.” Blue countered with a slight roll of his eyes.

“You’re a dick.” Morty responded petulantly.

“And you’re just angry that you’ll actually have to do something.” Blue waved off Morty’s name calling as he expected this kind of blow back but honestly he just felt bad for poor Jasmine.

“So when do we start this little journey.” Gary finally got into the conversation. He couldn’t say he was looking forward to heading over to Hoenn again but it wasn’t like he didn’t expect it once Dawn informed him about Wallace and Aqua Rocket working on obtaining some way to control one of the Legendary pokemon. If Hoenn fell they’d all be in trouble.

“I’ll need you to head out as soon as possible and meet with Wallace in Ever Grande City. I believe Professor Birch is now living there. I’ll want status reports but I’ll leave everything up to your discretion, little brother.” Blue grinned a little at the last remark. It always bothered Gary to be called little anything so it was amusing to see his more research minded younger sibling visibly twitch.

“Ah shit…I don’t wanna go and deal with Phoebe again. Man…what a freakin drag.” Morty let out an annoyed sigh.

“Aww Morty, feelin a little intimidated since you’ll have to work with a real master of Ghost types?” Jasmine teased over the phone.

“Doubtful, more likely he’s annoyed that someone will actually have the knowledge to call him on his bullshit he calls training.” Clair joined in, a rare smirk coming to her face for just a moment and in a flash it was gone.

“You know if this is how you’re gonna treat me, maybe I won’t even go.” Morty half threatened at the treatment he was receiving from his crush and the leader of the Johto gyms leaders.

“Oh you better or I’ll have your hide. If I come to that run down gym of yours and find you sleeping until noon again you’ll have more to worry about than dealing with Phoebe.” Pryce cut in while leveling a stern glare at the younger gym leader.

“Well I guess I’ll just meet you guys there. No sense in waiting around for each other. I’ll see you there.” With a final sigh of defeat, Morty clicked off and disappeared from the screen.

A moment later the remaining gym leaders started to click off and disappear. Gary just stared at the black screen for a moment before offering up a sigh. He put the phone down on the video receiver this time so he didn’t lose it in the fridge again, working late was bad for his health and his electronics.

“Well I think we better get ready to go.” Dawn walked into Gary’s lab with a backpack already over one shoulder and her traveling clothing on.

“We were just told we were going and you’re already packed? What have you had a bag ready to go just for this occasion?” Gary queried as he half-heartedly dug around his desk for his traveling gear. With a grumble of annoyance he gave up quick enough.

“What can I say, I’m always ready for an adventure.” Dawn winked at Gary before she pointed towards an old bag sitting in the corner that had seen better days. “Is that it?”

“Oh yeah…heh…guess I haven’t needed it for a while.” Gary rubbed the back of his head before he got out of the chair and grabbed the bag. He’d have to leave the everyday care of the lab to Tracey and Blue if he had a chance to stop by.

“Well, I’ll leave you to packing. You want me to get your pokemon for you while I grab mine?” Dawn asked as she started to leave the lab and Gary with it. There was no way she was going to get involved with packing. While Gary may be fairly well rounded, packing was not a strong point. She almost shuddered to think what he’d bring with him.

“Sure, better make sure to bring my traveling team. I have a feeling that we won’t be staying in the safety of Ever Grande for long if we’re going to help stop Aqua Rocket.” Gary called out over his shoulder as he started to throw whatever he felt he may need into the bag.

The ringing sound of the video phone caused Gary to almost fall out of his chair in surprise. A quick glance up and he saw Brock’s face pop up on the screen.

“This outta be good…” Gary muttered to himself before he leaned over to accept the call. It wasn’t long before Brock’s image was replaced by the man himself. The idiot had a rather goofy grin on his face.

“Gary! You heading out to Hoenn already?” Brock asked as he watched his researcher friend throwing random items into his backpack.

Gary stopped his frantic packing to eye his friend suspiciously. They had just gotten off the phone with Red. There was no way that Brock found out about his posting to Hoenn that quickly. Something was up and he had a feeling he was about to be left with a bad taste in his mouth.

“How do you even know that I got assigned as part of the group to head out to Hoenn?” Gary asked with a quirk of his eyebrow.

“Hehe…well…I happen to be at Daisy’s place…” Brock tried to keep the smile off his face but ended up failing miserably.

Gary shook his head in disbelief. Really how had he managed to get into Daisy’s pants as well? “I shouldn’t be surprised anymore but I still find myself stunned.”

“You’re jelly.” Brock responded with a grin as he surveyed Gary’s reaction.

“Don’t ever use that phrase again…seriously…you sound like a teenager.” Gary responded dryly.

“Well regardless of your feeling on the matter, I’ll be heading to Hoenn as well. If you all are willing to wait until tomorrow I’ll be down to Pallet Town by Noon.” Brock didn’t bother rising to Gary’s bait. The young researcher still couldn’t figure out how he had become such a ladies man. It was in fact quite simple, he was almost angry he didn’t think of it before. Capture a super cute baby pokemon, go to the park, and then dot on the baby pokemon. Women seemed to love the tender hearted man. He just played it cool and let the baby pokemon do all the work.

Gary paused on the screen for a moment as he seemed to think over the offer. After a long suffering sigh Gary finally responded. “Fine, Dawn and I are leaving at Noon. So you better get here on time or else we’re leaving without you.”

“Geez…I’ll be there…calm down. I’ll see you in the morning.” Brock decided to cut the connection before Gary went off on him about how he was a doppelganger. Seriously it was getting old and if he was an imposter he would have made a move by now.

It had been rough after Ash had disappeared. While he couldn’t support Cynthia directly, deep down he still believed that Ash was somehow alive. That was part of the reason why he accepted the position of ambassador. It gave him the ability to travel across the world and continue his clandestine search for Ash.

It was after the conclusion of the Kanto Succession Wars that Red had appointed him. Perhaps it was due to the lack of options. There had been a purging of the League. Once the Loyalists took over from Agatha’s forces, Red had taken over and wiped out the entire standing administration. He deemed them suspect for following Agatha.

Quite a few positions opened up and somehow he had ended up being appointed as Ambassador for the Kanto/Johto region. He half suspected that Red had appointed him to find Ash as he did out of desperation. Still he couldn’t complain, he got to travel the world and meet all kinds of women.

“Oh Brock, where are you! We still have some time before you have to leave!” Daisy called from the hallway.

As fun as it was to reminisce about the past, the present held some wonderful gifts as well. He’d worry about meeting Gary in Pallet Town later.

 

Kanto League – Indigo Plateau

 

“Do you really think it’s wise not getting involved directly with Hoenn?” Blue asked as he helped himself to a seat in Red’s office. It was almost as bad as Lance’s office used to be only Lance at least had some personality. It didn’t surprise Blue that Red didn’t even respond to his question, just kept typing away at his computer.

“You realize if Aqua Rocket really does gain control of one of the creation pokemon of Hoenn there’ll be hell to pay for all of us. I don’t see why you don’t just send me over and be done with it. If you just had come back you could have stopped this entire mess from ever happening. And I mean everything! The Kanto Succession Wars, Ash being lost in Hoenn, and Aqua Rocket’s rise to power.” Blue grumbled as he crossed his arms as he continued to stare at the unmoving Red. The man didn’t even bat an eye at Blue’s accusations.

“Our time as leaders in this world is ending. The younger generation will soon lead and if we solve all of their problems for them, we’ll do them a disservice…or perhaps end up like Agatha.” Red finally spoke up in an even toned voice that sounded a little scratchy from disuse. The Champion of the Kanto and Johto League stared at his friend and rival as if staring into his soul.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you could have prevented millions of deaths.” Blue countered with a glare at his rival. After holding Red’s gaze for a moment, he finally looked away from his friend. He hated staring into Red’s eyes the man had an unsettling gaze. Still he couldn’t understand what Red was thinking by not taking action. It didn’t matter to him that they were not affording the younger generation a chance to lead. Sometimes you had to step in for the greater good no matter what your feelings.

“You’d have me be God then?” Red queried with a slight raise of his eyebrow. The dark haired man held his friend’s angry gaze with the quirked eyebrow.

“No!” Blue shook his head in annoyance at his friend’s cavalier approach to his concerns.

“I’d have you take a god damn stance on this rather than play at your little shadow wars. Rather than declare to the people what is occurring you just up and disappear. Then you reappear without a how do you do or even a reason for your disappearance!”

“And what would you tell the people? That someone is trying to destroy the entire world only to recreate it with himself as God and I’m the only hope?” Red queried with a ghost of a smile.

“That’d be a grand way to cause a panic.”

“Besides what do you think would happen if the other regions found out that you and I left?” Red continued on before he fell silent awaiting Blue’s response.

“You really think one of the other regions would dare attack us?” Blue asked incredulously at Red’s thought process.

“Not another region. A person.” Red responded with a small frown.

 

A/N: I know it has been a while since we had a full chapter. I’m going to work on getting the Burning Nightmare completed within the next year. I just got a new job back in my original field so I’ll have more time to write soon! Hopefully I can get this done by summer 2015.

Anyway this chapter was mainly Gary centric but hopefully I gave you all enough information on what’s been happening with everyone and the regions. I’ll expand next chapter.

Thanks again for reading and I hope you have a chance to review with thoughts and feelings. Next chapter will be more Hoenn centric.

 


	21. Ever Grande City - Natural Cure

A/N: Alright so here come some answers and some more questions. Mostly more questions what am I saying. Anyway hopefully this will be wrapped up sometime within the next year or three.

 

So again sorry for the delay, as I’ve said in A Really Nice Shot!, I was delayed by some excitingly terrible developments with my now former supervisor. I did just want to thank my fans again for sticking it out. I know this story has been going on forever and a day. So please read and review! Enjoy!

 

 

Ever Grande City: Natural Cure:

 

-Ever Grande City-

 

“Wallace you lazy lay about, get up!” Phoebe yelled as she threw Wallace’s door open to his chambers. It didn’t surprise the young elite four member in the least that Wallace was lying on his bed with his hat pulled down over his face.

 

Her eyebrow twitched when her yell didn’t elicit a response. She started to walk over to her supervisor...and she used that term loosely to rouse him from his nap. It was times like this she yearned for the days that Steven was still the champion. The man at least could run the league without shoving his work off to his underlings.

 

“Wallace! Wake up!” She raised her voice once more as she looked for an object to pelt him with.

 

“Come on Phoebe, leave me alone, I’ll do it later I promise.” Wallace muttered in annoyance at the interruption to his nap. Why was it always Phoebe...actually why was it always Phoebe in her official capacity. A lecherous grin crossed his face, he wouldn’t mind seeing her off hours in her “uniform” it only lasted a second before a book connected with his face that snapped his head to the right.

 

He sat up stock straight as he rubbed his face. He glanced over at Phoebe with a hurt expression as he rubbed his face. “Oww...Phoebe why do you wound me so?”

 

“You were thinking pervy thoughts again.” Phoebe responded in a dry tone as she hefted her pokeball. “Now would you get up already, you’re needed.”

 

“Alright I’m up, I’m up.” Wallace raised his hands in surrender, not ever attempting to correct Phoebe’s assessment of his thought process a moment ago.

 

“So what cruel fate do you have in store for me today?”

 

“Other than your job?” Phoebe queried with a withering glare. 

 

“Also that.” Wallace grinned as he stretched his arms over his head in an attempt to remove the kinks from his neck. After a moment of luxuriating in the sunshine coming in through his window he finally got himself out of bed with a yawn.

 

“We have the dignitaries coming in from the Kanto and Johto region. It’d be nice if we could have our Champion greet them.” Phoebe reminded her commander.

 

“Well, if I must.” Wallace let out an undignified huff.

 

“Yes, you must.” Phoebe responded as if talking to a small child.

 

“No need to get in a huff my darling little Phi-Phi.” Wallace waved off her reprimanding with a grin.

 

“Lech.” Phoebe ended the conversation before it fell into more sexual innuendo and the use of that horrid nick name he seemed to love to use because it got under her skin. “They’ll be arriving in an hour. Please make yourself suitable. I’d hate to have to call Steven again to fill in.”

 

“Don’t run from my love my darling Phi-Phi!” Wallace called after her with an appreciative eye for her swaying hips as she retreated.

 

The lecherous smile fell off his face the moment Phoebe made it out the door. Replaced by a contemplative look. Sometimes it felt like he had been Champion forever. It had been at Steven’s request that he took over as Champion. Steven felt he would be better as a researcher than a leader in these tough times. While Steven was excellent at what he did and was rather popular by name alone he didn’t have the personality the people needed. Someone with unfounded confidence that they could defeat Team Aqua Rocket, or at least someone that could fake it.

 

If the people really knew how desperate they were...he had even repelled the declaration that certain people like Gary Oak were no longer welcomed in Hoenn. Although it had been a hard sell, he needed all the help he could get. Gary Oak was one of the premier scientists in the world.

 

Steven was amazing in his own right but he was focused more on research and technology. Professor Birch was lost when Little Root fell. From their intelligent sources the man was still alive but probably being pumped for all the information he knew regarding the legendary pokemon Kyogre.

 

A frown overtook his face at the thought of Aqua Rocket discovering where the Cave of Origins was located. It was their best guess as to where the orb of power was located to summon Kyogre. It was well defended in the Cave of Origins, not even he could penetrate the barrier.

 

They had set up a guard anyway headed by Roxanne and Flannery. The two were forced to flee their hometowns as Aqua Rocket would have killed them whether they capitulated or not.

It would only be a matter of time of course. Aqua Rocket ruled the seas.

While they managed to keep the other islands connected and supplied with the use of their large air force. Aqua Rocket had sunk most of their fleet. The little remaining fleet they had was all that kept Lily Cove City afloat with supplies from Johto. That and Watson’s affinity for electric types.

 

He supposed he should get ready to meet the reinforcements or as he told the people of Hoenn, consultants that would assist Hoenn in retaking their home from terrorists. It always helped to make the people think that it would be the Rangers of Hoenn that would retake their homeland and that there would be little involvement from outside political parties.

 

While Johto, Kanto, and Sinnoh had been quite forgiving in the price to rent out their people. Unova had requested trade deals that bordered on extortion not that Wallace had any choice in the matter. Of course if they didn’t win then they wouldn’t have to pay Unova anything. A small smirk came to his face. It’d serve the bastards right for their complete disregard.

 

And knowing his luck Unova would only send some low level Rangers and a couple of their gym leaders as support. Still war was not won by super soldiers but every day people doing the grunt work.

 

Wallace shook his head. No use getting in a huff about the entire agreement, he was fairly sure he could sweet talk the Dragon Princess of Unova into a better deal later on. Besides with Kanto and Johto backing him, even with their weakened status they still held a lot of sway over the other regions due to Red and Blue being in command. Their power was legendary and while Unova may hold delusions of grandeur even they weren’t stupid...at least he hoped.

 

He was just about ready to head down and get ready for another public meet and greet when the klaxon went off. It took him by surprise, an attack on the League seat? They dared? With a growl of annoyance he took off down the hall and took the stairs two by two.

 

It was only a moment later that he ran into Sidney. The rough looking man shot a smile at his commander. “Looks like we’re gonna get some action, yeah?”

 

“Don’t look so excited.” Wallace reprimanded without any real bite in his voice.

 

“Sorry Chiefy but I’ve been itchin’ to wipe some Rocket scum from the land. Last one to the battle field’s a rotten egg!” The rough looking man overtook his commanding officer and headed out towards the outer walls.

 

Wallace shook his head in amusement as he watched his subordinate rush off to battle. Hiding behind walls wasn’t Sidney’s style so it didn’t surprise him that the Dark type Master would head out to start an offensive attack on the invaders to the Island. He made his way to the great hall where all trainers started their challenge to the Elite Four. It was likely where the others would meet.

He was not disappointed. Phi-Phi was there of course already looking anxious, she was probably concerned about the incoming parties from the other regions if he knew her. Glacia looked cool as ever and appeared to be unconcerned with the attack. She was confident in her ability to repel anything Aqua brought to bear against them. Finally Drake was there as well, sharing Glacia’s cool look.

 

“Your orders?” Drake half asked and half commanded the moment the two made eye contact.

 

“Sidney’s already gone ahead. Drake, you and I will head out to support him. Phoebe, use your ghosts to keep our citizens safe. Glacia you’ll stay here to guard the city with the remaining Rangers.” Wallace quickly decided on the best way to use the resources he had.

 

Luckily Steven was in Sootopolis City with Wallace’s former mentor Juan along with Norman so they should be able to protect the city if Aqua was attacking the nearby island as well.  Liza and Tate would have to hold Moss Deep alone if it came under attack. Unfortunately he had no further time to consider such issues.

 

“Do you think they’ve found the Cave?” Drake asked as he quickly caught up to Wallace. The stern looking man’s severe face almost made him look angry.

 

“Let’s hope not but if we send anyone to check on the guard they’ll surely follow and discover it if they don’t know already. We’ll have to trust that Flannery and Roxanne to keep the entrance from being discovered.” Wallace replied with a rare frown crossing his face.

 

“Hn…” Drake muttered non-committedly. The moment the two cleared the door to the outside the older man was already throwing forth a pokeball. A moment later his Salamence appeared in a blast of red light.

 

“I’m going to catch up to that idiot before he gets himself killed.” Drake commented in a tone that brooked no argument.

 

Wallace was left to watch the older man take off atop his Salamence. He swore it was just to show off but the old man just stood on the back of his dragon without any hand holds with his arms shoved in his jacket pockets.

 

He shook his head in amusement before he also called forth his own pokemon, Gyarados. The giant water dragon rose off the ground before roaring out a challenge to anyone that dared. Wallace gracefully leaped upon his pokemon’s back and guided it out towards the port. He could see the giant ship from here. How it had gotten past their scouts...well he had a feeling that the scouts wouldn’t be reporting in any time soon.

 

 

\- Hoenn Region - Ever Grande City -

 

Two men dashed through the forest while jumping over rocks and fallen trees. The older one pushed ahead of the younger one and soon had gotten a comfortable lead on the younger man.

 

The sound of the buzzing ahead only made him push himself harder in his attempt to make it before the gate closed...again. It had been years since he had gotten this close. Every other time he had missed it or it was going to a time line too far in the future or the past. Finally after getting help from Gary Oak’s great great grandson Stanford...and that was a head trip to think about. He had narrowed down Celebi’s next appearance to a small area in the Hoenn region near Ever Grande City...which was amazingly hard to get into when you were still considered an enemy of the state even nearly three hundred and fifty years later.

 

He clenched his gloved hand in excitement, he was getting closer. He could feel it through his Aura. He sent the small tendrils out ahead to pinpoint the tear in time. “I don’t see why we couldn’t have just found Dialga rather than playing tag with Celebi!”

 

“You want to go find a Legendary pokemon and attempt to convince it to let you off in the past?” The younger man let out a huff as he drew in a ragged breath from running and talking.

 

“Hey I used to have a Legendary pokemon that was a friend, I’m sure I could have pulled it off.” Ash responded lightly as he dodged around a tree that was in his way.

 

“Well why didn’t you call on that friend to help you out in the past few years?” Stan called back in an annoyed tone. Not to mention it would have been great to see a Legendary pokemon up close and personal.

 

“Never thought of it!” Ash called back with a grin.

 

“Idiot.” Stan muttered under his breath as he followed the man that just showed up at his lab one night five years ago. No explanation other than declaring that he knew Gary Oak and he had a standing offer to crash at the lab at any time. At first he was doubtful but the man knew his way around the lab and had even shown him a few secret rooms he didn’t know about. The personal journals from Gary Oak had been quite enlightening.

 

“Besides for all I know he may be dead, he wasn’t exactly a normal Legendary, i’m assuming if he was alive he would have found me!” Ash called back.

 

Or he didn’t want to get tied up in the insanity that was Ash Ketchum again. That was what was more likely as far as Stan was concerned if the pokemon was still alive.

 

It had been a pain keeping Ash away from any history from his time or any mention of it for the past five years. He had reasoned that if Ash changed it in any way he may change something just enough so he didn’t exist. He liked existing thank you very much.

 

Ash had changed in the past five years. He no longer wore a hat to cover his spiky hair. Instead he just let it free. Gone were the aura suppressing crystals and now instead of two gloves he only wore the one on his right hand. On that glove, twelve crystals of different colors. The signature vest was also gone. While he could have replaced it, he just couldn’t get into the styles of this century. Instead he opted for his traditional jeans and black shirt. Perhaps if he made it this time he could actually replace his vest.

 

A small smile crossed his face at the thought. The chance to be back with friends pushed him on faster. It was much easier than he expected. After all these years of chasing Celebi he was expecting a grand entrance or perhaps a last minute dive into the entrance to the past. Instead he burst out into the small field to find the portal wide open.

 

This was it, the Celebi traveling back to his time...or at least as close as he’d ever get. He turned back to face the path he had just come from to see Stanford bursting out of the tree line. The young man shared much of Gary Oak’s features but instead of brown hair he had blue hair. It was a little weird but after working with him for the past five years he had gotten used to it.

 

“Last chance if you wanna come to the past, you could be a genius in your field.” Ash said with a grin.

 

“I’m already a genius in my field.” Stan responded sourly as he eyed the portal with interest. He was just itching to measure the power output and cursed himself internally for not bringing his field gear with him.

 

Ash waved off Stan’s reply with his hand. “Yeah but you could make up a new name, maybe something better than Oak.”

 

Stan let out a half strangled sigh of annoyance as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Contrary to your belief, I’m actually proud of the Oak name.”

 

“You’re so uptight.” Ash chuckled in response.

 

“And you’re an idiot.” Stan replied dryly.

 

“I’m just pointing out you could bring all your future knowledge to the past and rule us Neanderthals with your sky magic.” Ash grinned in jest.

 

“And you don’t think it’d be a little odd if you came back from the future...since I highly doubt you could keep your mouth shut about it and a genius prodigy arrived at the very same time?” Stan queried.

 

“You’re really no fun.” Ash practically pouted in annoyance.

 

“And besides if I’m correct, I wouldn’t survive the journey and I enjoy existing.”

 

“You’ll never know if you don’t try.” Ash pointed out with a small grin.

 

“I think I’d prefer not to know rather than be dragged along to what will surely be my death by some overzealous idiot.” Stan bit back with a hint of superiority in his tone.

 

“Typical Gary, even managed to pass along his snobbery to his descendants.” Ash muttered more to himself than Stan.

 

Stan rolled his eyes at Ash’s childness before gesturing to the portal that was starting to shrink in size. “Shouldn’t you be going?”

 

“Don’t want to be stuck with me for another nine years?” Ash shot back.

 

“Honestly, no.”

 

“We could always hunt down Dialga together.” Ash offered with a wink as he started to walk backwards towards the portal.

 

“I already said no...besides did you forget our ill-fated hunt for Mew?” Stan responded with a shooing motion as if it would get Ash to go faster.

 

“I said I was sorry.” Ash whined.

 

“Your portal is closing.” Stan pointed out dryly as he made a motion to the purple vortex that had started to close in on itself.

 

“Well in that case good luck Stan, it was nice meeting you.” Ash called out before he dove through the swirling purple and black time vortex that Celebi had generated with its power.

 

“Don’t let my great great grandfather die! I prefer to exist!” Stan called out at the last moment.

 

It was a strange sensation, being sucked in felt like a slow drain on his powers. It was probably his Aura automatically activating to shield him from the temporal distortion. Only someone with either psychic or aura power could survive a passage through time as Stan had theorized. It was why he believed you didn’t see people popping out left and right all over time. If anyone could survive it, more than just Ash would have stumbled across Celebi’s open portals. Then again who other than Ash would really advertise where they were from?

 

It had been his Aura that opened a gate to a new time back in Slateport. The release of that much Aura energy had created a rip and sucked him in right as the explosion of his power was released. It had been a close thing, there was no way he would have survived the blast that originated from his Aura if he hadn’t been sucked in at the last moment.

 

Ash took one last look at the future...or at least a possibility of a future. It had been all rather confusing and he had gotten to the point he stopped asking for an explanation. It hurt his head just a little too much. Stanford was still standing there in the clearing watching as the vortex slowly collapsed in on itself. He watched as the swirling portal behind him finally closed itself off, sealing any chance of going back. Which sealed his chance of getting back to killing that snarky professor if he was wrong about where this Celebi was going.

 

Ash took a deep breath as he started to get pushed out the other side. This was it, he’d be stuck here on the other side one way or another. The chances of being able to track down Celebi again and figure out where it’d be jumping to next would be next to nil. It all happened too quickly. One second he was standing on solid ground the next moment he was in the air.

 

Oh shit he was in the air. This had never been in Stanford’s calculations...then again the kid did seem a bit spotty when it came to where he’d be coming in and continuously asked him if he could fly. Ash instinctively attempted to turn back to go after that little jerk but found that the portal had snapped shut behind him. It brought his attention back to his current predicament. He was falling at a rather high rate of speed.

 

He could barely keep his eyes open from the force of the air rushing up at him. Struggling against the pull of gravity Ash managed to bring his left hand up to the glove on his right hand and depress the white crystal. A beam of white light shot forth in the air before it transformed into a giant bird. Ash’s Pidgeot to be exact. The large bird gracefully pulled itself underneath it’s trainer without an order having to be issued.

 

Ash let out a sigh of relief as he grabbed onto the giant bird’s back and felt himself slow from the free fall as Pidgeot circled down towards the ground. It was different after being in the future for so long. The sun subjectively felt brighter and the air fresher. Of course most of that could have been where he was so far above the ground. It was only as he started to come in closer to the ground that he became aware of an all-out battle occurring below him.

 

“Thanks Pidgeot.” Ash commented as he leaned over his pokemon in an attempt to get a better visual of what was occurring below. After a few frustrating moments he gave up and decided the only way he could find out what was going on would be coming down lower for a visual. He’d have to rely on his luck and patented Ash Ketchum back up plan, that being blast anything that attacked him first.

 

“Alright Pidgeot, let’s see what’s going on. Remember try to stick to the edges of the battle.” Ash felt a rush of air as the giant bird glided down lower to the ground. As they got closer and closer to the ground and the battle he realized where he was at least. He was above Ever Grande City. It was under attack and as he came closer he identified the instigators. Team Aqua’s battleship Draken sat there proudly in the bay. Pokemon seemed to be coming out from the boat in droves as they clashed with League forces.

 

Well on the plus side he was back in the correct era...he hoped. It looked like he was about to be pulled into the battle whether he was in the right time one way or another. He wasn’t keen on letting Aqua have something it wanted. As he got closer he realized it was an all-out attack on the League seat of Hoenn. Had things really gone this far South while he had been in the future? Ash filed it under things to worry about later. The only way he’d get those answers was if he helped repel the assault.

 

He decided the most expedient way was to get said answers was a clear and decisive victory. It appeared his first examples had arrived. A group of Team Aqua members had spotted him below and were using their electric types to send lightning bolts into the sky. With a tap of his finger a fire red crystal on his glove was depressed and Charizard formed into existence. The giant fire dragon let out a challenging roar to the entire area.

 

“Now why don’t we try out that new power.” Ash let out a wild laugh as he depressed the crystal a second time. Team Aqua may have been dabbling with it but in the future it had been perfected.

 

“Fire dragon roar, fire dragon slash, Charizard!” Ash called out as de depressed the red crystal a second time. A beam of energy shot out and connected with Charizard, enveloping the dragon in a cocoon of energy.

 

A moment later Charizard X burst out of the cocoon, now a blue and black dragon unlike anything that had ever been seen in Hoenn. The Burning Nightmare had returned to Hoenn and he would mete out punishment and destruction on Team Aqua.

 

The men and their pokemon below didn’t get a chance to respond as Charizard slammed into the ground below performing an earth quake attack that rattled the enemy pokemon to their core and sent Team Aqua members flying in the air. It was followed by a flame thrower attack that incinerated any survivors.

 

“Gotta finish this quick.” Ash muttered before directing Charizard to the next group of enemy combatants. Screams rent the air as Charizard plowed through another group of Team Aqua grunts and their pokemon while enveloped in a Flame Charge.

 

-Ever Grande City – Forest region

 

Gary gritted his teeth as he threw himself against a tree to avoid a random blast from a Flamethrower attack. The air stank of burnt ozone that caused him to wrinkle his nose in disgust. A quick glance over to Dawn confirmed she was still among the living. They had picked a hell of a time to arrive and ran right into a Rocket assault on Ever Grande City. At the moment they were fighting their way through to the walls and hopefully safety if they didn’t get blasted by an overzealous Ranger first.

 

“Electivire use thunderbolt!” Gary commanded as he trusted his pokemon to pick his target. They currently were engaging with a small group of Rocket pokemon and their trainers. He used the distraction of Electivire’s thunderbolt to close the gap to the tree Dawn was currently using as cover.

 

“You ok?”

 

Dawn simply raised her eyebrow at his question.

 

“Alright stupid question but we’ve got to get moving before they surround us.” Gary pointed out.

 

Dawn nodded in agreement to that statement. They had been forced further into the forest and they were coming up on a clearing. If they didn’t get out of here they’d be completely cut off from the city. She glanced up into the sky with a frown. Even through the trees she could see that flying back out wasn’t an option. They had just barely made it onto the island and now Aqua Rocket’s aerial force seemed to be dominating the sky. They’d be shot down in a moment.

 

“Any chance you can get that Mewtwo to help you?” Dawn queried as she directed Mamoswine to cover the entire area to the side of them with an ice beam attack. She hoped it would discourage anyone from flanking them. She winced slightly at the retaliatory strikes that Mamoswine endured for his trouble.

 

“He isn’t exactly a Golden Retriever.” Gary quipped in a dry tone.

 

“So what’s the point of having a connection with a Legendary pokemon again?” Dawn responded sarcastically.

 

“I used to ask Ash the same question, I still haven’t come up with a good answer, now you ready to get out of here?”

 

“You finally come up with a plan that doesn’t involve either one of us losing a hand?” Dawn wiggled the fingers on her right hand as Gary directed Electivire to prepare a Flash attack.

 

“Close your eyes, we’ll make a run across the field while they’re distracted.” Gary commanded, completely ignoring the fact that Dawn was making fun of him. Mostly because she did this all the time. Only his wife would find his amputation funny.

 

Dawn nodded before quickly recalling Mamoswine. They’d have to make a run for it and hope to lose them past the field and unfortunately Mamoswine wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. With a flash of red light her pokemon disappeared back into the pokeball. She then threw her hand up in front of her face as a bright light lit up the entire forest.

 

Gary held his hand up in front of his closed eyes. The screams confirmed that he had hit his mark. In one fluid movement he recalled Electivire and snapped the pokeball back into his belt. “Time to go!”

 

The pair made a break from their hiding place and made a dash across the long expanse of the field. If they could make it across to the other side they could probably make it to the city before the Rocket team recovered.

 

Unfortunately the pair were shaken off their feet before they could reach the edge of the woods and slip into the trees. A rumbling sound came from underneath the pair a moment later. Gary and Dawn rolled away from the ground as a giant Steelix erupted from the ground in between the pair before diving back into the ground causing the earth around them to shudder.

 

“Where the hell did that thing come from?” Gary cried out as he finally got to his feet again. A wary look around didn’t reveal anyone or any signs of the Steelix.

 

“Maybe it was wild.” Dawn suggested as she too looked around as she drifted back towards Gary, a pokeball in her hand.

 

“We’re not that lucky.” Gary responded tiredly as he too withdrew a new pokeball. He had been hoping to avoid any further battling. He was tired of fighting but it seemed the fighting wasn’t done with him quite yet.

 

“So the rumors were true, Professor Oak, a pleasure.” A young woman finally stepped out from under a tree she had been standing under while directing her Steelix. She had to hand it to the pair they would have gotten away if not for the fact she was waiting for them. Ever since they landed she had been tracking them.

 

“I’m sure.” Gary quipped back dryly. He studied the young woman with a critical eye, he was trying to place her. She wore a pair of blue bellbottom pants with matching blue boots. Her midriff was exposed but she wore a blue long sleeve shirt that had loose sleeves. Long black hair with dark blue highlights and bright blue eyes that contrasted against her dark olive complexion. It didn’t take a genius to link her to Team Aqua. She must have made the cut during Koga’s purge.

 

“I’ve been instructed to offer you and your wife a position with Team Aqua Rocket.” Shelly stated completely brushing off Gary’s response.

 

“And if I refuse?” Gary asked even though he probably already knew the answer.

“I kill your wife and drag you back to our lab. We use you like we use Professor Birch.” Shelly commented with a shrug as if to say it didn’t bother her which option was chosen by the two.

 

“Well, never tell anyone that Rocket doesn’t offer options.” Dawn quipped before she released her pokeball. Her Lopunny appeared in a flash of red light. The tall rabbit pokemon surveying the field as its giant ears perked up slightly.

 

“Too bad I always find myself wanting a third.” Gary responded to his wife with a grin as he released his Blastoise to assist against Shelly. Unfortunately the group in the woods had partially recovered and soon a Magmar and Politoed emerged from the edge of the woods they had just come from.

 

“Very well, Professor Oak.” Shelly didn’t bat an eye at the responses. It hadn’t been a surprise really. With a flick of her hand she pulled a crystal from her wide armed sleeve.

 

“Steelix, Mega Evolve.” She called out as Steelix burst out of the ground a beam of light left the crystal she held in her hand and struck the giant iron snake. A moment later it started to glow, quickly growing in length. Giant slabs of steel grew out of its head while the churning spikes lengthened and turned to hardened diamond. Finally the pokemon let out a roar of challenge.

 

“This isn’t good.” Gary muttered as he realized the predicament they were in. Three on two wasn’t good to begin with but now they had to deal with one of Rocket’s science experiments. He had run into a mega pokemon during the Succession wars. Agatha had gotten a hold of a way to mega evolve her Ganger. It had taken over ten fully evolved pokemon to finally take it down and with it Agatha.

 

“So joining Aqua Rocket still on the table?” Dawn shot back with a grin.

 

“I’m thinking no.” Gary responded as Shelly directed Steelix to dive underground again. The giant steel snake dove through the ground causing Gary and Dawn to almost fall down again. Now that it had mega evolved it was able to cause tremors across the entire area.

 

“Lopunny, use your ears to detect it!” Dawn ordered.

 

“Blastoise, keep the pressure up on those other two with Hydro Cannon!” Gary ordered as well.

 

The giant turtle pokemon leveled it’s cannons at the other two pokemon on the field and let loose a pressurized blast of water at Magmar and Politoed. Unsurprisingly the toad pokemon jumped in front of Magmar and took the blast of water for the fire type.

 

Just as Blastoise was recovering from the attack it just launched the ground beneath it started to rumble.

 

“Blastoise!” The giant sea turtle cried out in surprise as Mega Steelix erupted from underneath the turtle sending Blastoise sailing into the air.

 

“Now...Steelix. Iron tail.” Shelly commanded calmly as she watched the fight with barely veiled contempt. It wasn’t hard with Steelix’s ability magnified by the mega evolution. The steel snake’s tail flashed in the light of the sun as it flew through the air before connecting with Blastoise’s hard shell.

 

The attack sent Blastoise spinning towards the ground at high velocity.

 

“Withdraw Blastoise!” Gary cried out in an attempt to save his pokemon. Luckily Blastoise had enough wherewithal to follow Gary’s command not that it didn’t stop the blow from knocking the pokemon out and cracking its shell.

 

Gary winced before recalling his pokemon and clicking the stasis button. It wouldn’t heal the turtle but it would hopefully keep him alive long for him to make it to Ever Grande City, although he had a feeling that chance was slipping away.

 

“Lopunny!” Dawn cried out as her pokemon took a double punishment of a flame thrower and water gun attack. The bunny pokemon cried out as it used its ears to block the attack but at the cost of exposing itself to Steelix.

 

With a roar the giant steel snake brought its tail down on both Dawn and Lopunny. A rush of sand caused the entire area to become obscured in dust.

 

“Dawn!” Gary cried out in desperation even though he knew on some level it was pointless. It was happening all over again. Lily had died because he wasn’t strong enough. He couldn’t save another person. Tears started to stream down his eyes as he rushed towards the Steelix. He came to a stop as he stared down at the crater that the tail had created. The steel snake hadn’t moved his tail from where it had landed on Dawn and her Lopunny.

 

Gary fell to his knees, tears running down his face as he stared into the crater and the giant pokemon’s tail. He caught sight of blood on the ground. There was a splattering of it in a line out from under Mega Steelix and ran up the wall of the crater. It wasn’t a lot but it was enough for him to confirm that Dawn nor Lopunny had made it.

 

“Are you ready now Professor?” Shelly called out over the battlefield. Just as she thought, killing his wife would break his ability to resist.

 

“Fuck you!” Gary growled back as he just stared down at where a moment ago Dawn and Lopunny had been. It wasn’t possible. How could he fail his second chance at love? Why did he fail everyone he loved? Lily, AJ, Ash, Gramps, and now Dawn. Everyone around him died and he wasn’t strong enough to stop it.

 

“That can be arranged if you will come with us quietly.” Shelly responded dispassionately.

 

“You people are monsters. Don’t you give a shit about what you’re doing?” Gary responded with a roar.

 

“Everyone is the hero in their own eyes, Professor.” Shelly responded with a small smile. “To us you are the evil enemy trying to stop our just cause. To you we are evil. We are simply just products of our choices doing what we believe it right.”

 

“Don’t try to rationalize your murders because I certainly acknowledge that I will kill you all in the name of vengeance.” Gary roared out in anger before withdrawing three more pokeballs. He would avenge Dawn even if it killed him. This time he wouldn’t run away. He stood up with tears still streaming down his face before turning to face Shelly and the two other grunts that had moved around to stand by her.

 

“Professor Oak, I will only ask one more time.” Shelly stated in a dispassionate tone her eyes showed little emotion regarding the fact she had just killed a human.

 

“I’ll murder every last one of you.” Gary responded as he enlarged the pokeballs. The odd didn’t matter anymore.

 

“I somehow doubt that Professor.” Shelly responded matter of factly as she gave a nod to the two grunts.

 

“Take him alive.”

 

Gary was about to respond when Steelix roared in surprise. The giant steel snake was launched into the air by a powerful blast of Aura. The blue light slowly disappeared as the giant steel snake came crashing down to the surface with a roar of pain at the surprise landing.

 

“Well that was close.” Ash chuckled as he slowly released the Aura shield that had encased Dawn, Lopunny, Lucario, and himself. The ex-Ranger shook his head and slowly worked out the quirk in his arm by spinning it. With a grin he jumped out of the crater that Steelix had created.

 

“Long time no see Gary...hey...need a hand?” Ash queried as he wiggled the fingers on his right hand while making a motion towards Gary’s metal hand.

 

Gary just stared at Ash in surprise as he turned his eyes to see Dawn and Lopunny still alive and unhurt minus a small cut across Dawn’s face. He was in shock and unable to process what was going on. His right arm went slack, his hand barely able to keep a hold on his pokeballs.

 

“Right, probably should have prefaced that with a hello, how are you? Oh and your great great grandson’s grandmother is fine...finally found out where that blue hair came from.” Ash raised his free hand to his head and scratched his head a little with an awkward grin.

 

The reunion was broken by Shelly commanded Steelix to attack once more. The Aqua Rocket commander had no time to deal with whoever this new player was. He looked familiar...like she had seen him somewhere before but she couldn’t place him. Perhaps it was one of Kanto’s Gym Leaders sent as protection? That was her best guess.

 

“Steelix, once more Iron Tail. Smash them to pieces!” Shelly commanded with the first hint of emotion she had let slip the entire battle. It worried her that the man’s Lucario had blocked Steelix’s attack even though Lucario was a fully evolved pokemon it shouldn’t have been able to block a Mega’s attack all by itself.

 

“Lucario block it with Bone Rush!” Ash commanded. He watched with pride as Lucario managed to match the attack from Steelix with his bone staff and hold the glowing iron tail attack back. The pressure of Steelix’s weight slowly started to push Lucario into the ground.

 

“You may as well give up. Nothing can stand up against our Mega Evolution pokemon. Their power is too great for even your Lucario to withstand the attacks for long.” Shelly growled in annoyance. This was unacceptable, how was a regular pokemon standing up to her Mega Evolved Steelix. This shouldn’t be possible. Of course clearly her Steelix would win eventually, it was all Lucario could do to hold Steelix off but still…

 

“Is that a fact?” Ash responded with a grin.

 

“Of course, Mega Evolutions are superior to every way to normal pokemon. As strong as your Lucario is, it will fall.” Shelly stated with false bravado leaking into her voice.  

 

“You’ve convinced me.” Ash stated with a nod as he raised his glove up to Lucario as if to recall his pokemon.

 

“Then recall your pokemon and place your hands behind your back.” Shelly ordered with relief.

 

“Oh, no, I meant to up the ante.” Ash responded with a grin as he clicked Lucario’s steel crystal a second time.

 

“Steel jackal sneer, steel jackal howl, Lucario!” Ash cried as a greyish red beam of light hit Lucario and enveloped him in a cocoon of light. With a burst of power Lucario grew another foot taller and the spikes appeared on his legs. Spikes that were on his hands grew larger and a second pair appeared as well. The appendages on his head grew longer and his tail also grew longer.

 

“Impossible.” Shelly uttered out as she watched this man counter her Mega Evolved pokemon with his own. Only Team Aqua Rocket had this technology, was this man a traitor?

 

“I demand to know your name!” Shelly needed to know. Master Ketchum would need to be informed that there was a traitor that had the power of mega evolution. It would swing favor back to the Hoenn Rangers if he was any good.

 

“Ash Ketchum, Ex-Elite Ranger but you may know me by my nickname, The Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar.” Ash added helpfully as he watched the color drain from the girl’s face and the grunts looked like they’d just peed themselves.

 

“But you’re dead.” Shelly responded dumbly.

 

“Nu uh!” Ash responded childishly before directing his attention back to Lucario.

 

“Now Lucario, finish this up with Aura Sphere!” Ash ordered. He grinned as Lucario now in his mega form formed an Aura Sphere and disappeared from sight he was moving so fast.

 

The next thing the Aqua Rocket grunts saw was the mega evolution fading back into view behind their pokemon. The two pokemon were still close together and it took only one sphere to send Politoed and Magmar flying into the air.

 

“Steelix get up!” Shelly cried out in a panic. This was unimaginable. If she was defeated they’d be cut down like wheat by a scythe during a harvest. When they deployed the team she was the strongest member of the strike force. Everyone else was just a diversion for her to reach her target before he got to the safety of the city.

 

The giant steel snake finally managed to pull itself together. The coils slowly running across the ground as it’s fins tore up the dirt creating a sand storm to increase it’s speed. It was Shelly’s only hope to counter Lucario’s speed. Although it worried the Admin that the pokemon took it upon itself to create it without an order. That meant even Steelix was concerned.

 

“Speed up all you want, you’ll never be able to counter Lucario in his mega form.” Ash waved off the move with his hand. It was pointless, with his Aura sense he could pinpoint exactly where every single person and pokemon stood and if he could that meant Lucario could as well.

 

“We’re not through yet!” Shelly growled as she lost her cool. She would not be knocked down by anyone be it the Burning Nightmare or not. It had to be a trick the man was dead. If he had been alive he would have showed up well before now.

“Now Steelix, finish it with Fire Fang!” Shelly cried out.

 

The giant steel snake lunged forward his mouth wide open with two fiery fangs glowing with power as the sand storm aided the snake in his movement. It moved way faster than it had previously and came up on Lucario quickly.

 

Ash stood there never uttering a command which only bolstered Shelly’s confidence. The man clearly hadn’t expected her pokemon to know Fire Fang. This should finish the Lucario in one blow.

 

She squinted to see the blow through the sand storm but a moment later she had to move her arm up to shield her face. The sand suddenly blew back towards her with amazing speed. The pieces of sand pelting her like a million tiny bee stings. She cried out in pain and almost fell to her knees.

 

The moment the grains of sand ceased to hit her, Shelly cautiously opened her eyes. What she saw made her gasp. There on top of Steelix’s head stood Lucario. The mega evolution had used close combat at the last moment. Pieces of steel were slowly crumbling away from Steelix’s body as the damage of the attack became apparant to Shelly.

 

With a scream of frustration she recalled her Steelix and made to order her two grunts to cover her only to find them knocked out on the ground. Without any further hesitation she called out her Abra.

 

“Teleport!” Shelly called out unconcerned where Abra took her as long as it was away from here.

 

Ash let out a sigh of relief as soon as the woman disappeared. Thankfully the woman didn’t have any other mega evolutions or else they may have had a problem. Just at that moment Lucario fell to his knees before the mega evolution shattered in a blast of white light leaving the pokemon on the edge of exhaustion and almost ready to pass out.

 

“Good work Lucario, return.” Ash called out before depressing a clear crystal separate from the other colored crystals. It recalled Lucario back as the pokemon disappeared instantly from the battlefield.

 

“Gary!” Dawn finally managed to scrabble up the side of the crater since she didn’t have Aura powers thank you very much. She managed to get her arms around Gary and shook him out of his stupor.

 

“You’re alive!” Gary cried out as he grasped onto her as if she was the only thing keeping him alive. The young Professor curled his hands around the back of her shirt as he buried his head into her shoulder.

 

“I’m here. Gary, I’m still here.” Dawn attempted to comfort the young man with a soft smile crossing her face. She knew what he had been through before and she was the last line of support he still had.

 

It took a moment for Gary to compose himself but he finally withdrew himself from Dawn’s shoulder before leaning in to kiss her. “Never do that again.”

 

“You mean follow another one of your plans? Noted.” Dawn quipped with a small smirk on her face.

 

“Don’t joke about this Dawn, I’m serious.” Gary responded with a disapproving frown. He hated how cavalier she was about almost dying sometimes.

 

“I promise I won’t ever almost die again because I followed one of your plans and you almost got us killed before Ash Ketchum who you said was dead comes out of the sky and saves our collective asses.” Dawn pledged with her hand raised as if she was in court.

 

“You’re incorrigible.” Gary muttered with a shake of his head.

 

“I like her.” Ash interjected.

 

Gary turned around to see his friend standing there as if he had never left. The idiot still had that same idiot grin on his face as if nothing was wrong. Wait...he had that same idiot grin on his face that had been missing since Leaf had died. Where the hell had he been and what happened to his friend.

 

“Is it really you?” Gary asked as if he didn’t quite believe his eyes even after it clearly was Ash based on the huge amounts of destruction that he generated.

 

“Yep.” Ash answered without any further information. “Cynthia here on the island or do I have to go find her?”

 

“Care to extrapolate on that?” Gary responded dryly. “Perhaps how you survived...maybe where you were for the past five years or perhaps how the hell you have pokemon that can Mega Evolve? Answers to any of those questions would be great.”

 

“Hmm...I was in the future.” Ash responded. “Now Cynthia?”

 

“She’s fine…and she is going to hold it over my head forever that her theory about what happened to you was correct.” In fact Gary was now feeling a little...or a lot guilty about not believing her. He pushed the thought off for the moment because he had other questions to ask.

 

“Now quit playing coy and answer the damn question.” Gary demanded his eyebrow twitching.

 

Ash nodded in understanding. It seemed he would get no further information about Cynthia until Gary’s scientific hard on was satisfied.

 

“I still can’t say I know the specifics but basically my Aura created a rip in the time vortex...or something and I got sucked through. Long story short your great great Grandson let me stay at his place while we tracked down an opening created by Celebi close to the present time.” Ash shook his head in annoyance. It was all above his interest level and he couldn’t say he really cared.

 

Gary sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “So you’ve influenced my great great grandson...delightful.”

 

“Don’t worry Gary he is just as much of a stick in the mud as you are.” Ash shot back which caused Dawn to giggle at the assessment.

 

“Traitor.” Gary muttered to Dawn.

 

“Yes how dare he spread such slanderous slanderous truth.” Dawn quipped with a wink.

 

Gary decided to follow up on the Mega Evolution issue. He turned his attention back to Ash although he kept a close eye on Dawn as if to assure himself that she was still there after the near loss.

 

“So where’d you get the Mega Evolved pokemon.” Gary queried with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Little gift from the future. Also you’ll note, no more Aura suppressing gloves.” Ash waved his hands up in front of Gary with a grin.

 

“So you’ve finally learned to control it.” Gary’s eyebrows raised in interest at the revelation. It had been all Blaine and Mewtwo could do to keep it suppressed let alone help Ash control it.

 

“Not really.” Ash rubbed the back of his head with a nervous grin. “Actually I just learned how to feed it into my pokemon through the mega evolution.”

 

Ash’s eyes lit up as he started the explanation of how it had all come about. “See they’ve perfected the Mega Evolution in the future. Essentially the pokemon uses its own energy to maintain the form, once their energy runs out they lose the ability to keep the form. With my Aura constantly flowing into all of my pokemon it disperses enough of it to keep me from going insane and gives them the ability to keep their mega evolved form longer.”

 

“Huh…” Gary commented unintelligibly as he took in the explanation. “So how does that differ from what Aqua Rocket are doing?”

 

“Aqua Rocket?” Ash asked in confusion.

 

“I’ll explain later.” Gary waved away the question. “Now answer the question. We’ve never had the chance to study a Mega Evolved pokemon when it wasn’t trying to kill us.”

 

“Right!” Ash started up again. “So from what I found out and believe me your great great grandson wouldn’t tell me much about the past, when mega evolution was first developed the pokemon could keep the form almost indefinitely. Only it didn’t drain the energy but actually drained the pokemon’s life force.”

 

“So ultimate power at the cost of the pokemon’s life.” Gary summed it up with a grim frown. So that was why they almost seemed unstoppable up until the point they died. They were literally draining their life force away to keep their form. It was why Agatha’s Ganger simply faded into nothingness after enough attacks from the Rangers, Lance, Dawn, Clair, and Gary.

 

“Exactly, most mega evolutions can only be held for ten to twenty minutes.” Ash informed Gary with a nod.

 

“And yours?” Gary asked with a hint of interest.

 

“Depends how I divert my Aura power...right now Charizard is going on almost an hour but he’ll be tapped out soon.” Ash responded.

 

“Dare I ask?”

 

“Ripping up Team Aqua’s battleship last I checked.” Ash answered happily.

 

“Fabulous.” Gary shuddered at the thought of a mega evolved Charizard running rampat without Ash to curtail the dragon’s need for destruction. Hoenn Rangers were probably shitting their pants if they had caught sight and realized it was a mega evolved pokemon...and he also was willing to bet some idiot would try it catch it to.

 

“Do you really need to call out those phrases to activate the mega evolution?” Gary asked with interest as he inspected the glove that Ash was wearing.

 

“Nah, it just sounds way cooler than just depressing the button and activating the mega evolution.” Ash responded with a chuckle.

 

“And you’ve created phrases for all of your pokemon that can Mega Evolve.” Gary queried dryly an unimpressed look coming across his face at his friend’s childish antics.

 

“Uh huh.” Ash confirmed as he rotated the glove around so Gary could inspect it from every angle.

 

“I keep forgetting that I’m dealing with a man-child.” Gary responded with a roll of his eyes.

 

“That’s what your great great grandson said until it caught on.” Ash grinned in excitement as he pointed towards his chest with his other hand. “I created a fad.”

 

“Congratulations on poisoning the impressionable youth of the future. I’m glad you can now claim spreading a stupid fad in the present and the future.” Gary quipped.

 

After a moment of thought Gary eyed Ash warily. “Please tell me you didn’t get my great great Grandson killed.”

 

“Man you two really are related.” Ash shook his head in amusement. “Dick was a real stick in the mud as well.”

 

“Dick Oak?” Gary responded with a quirked eyebrow.

 

“Umm hmm.” Ash hummed a confirmation while trying to keep in a giggle. That would serve that over pompous dick Stanford, no one would take someone named Dick Oak seriously.

 

“There is no way any great great Grandchild of mine would be named what is essentially a walking talking penis joke.” Gary responded with a shake of his head. There was just no way.

 

“Are you sure it wouldn’t be something a little more like Stanford or David?” Gary asked in hope that his descendants didn’t name his great great grandchild such a terrible name.

 

“Nope it was Dick.” Ash confirmed once more with a serious look on his face.

 

“I don’t believe it. Now can we please get going before Charizard burns the entire port down. If I remember correctly your dragon is quite overzealous.” Gary noted the disappointed look on Ash’s face that he refused to take the bait.

 

“Fine...but then we’re finding Cynthia. I kinda owe her a huge apology.” Ash shuddered to think what the girl would do to him if she found out he was alive second hand from someone else or through the grape vine...in fact he knew exactly what would happen. It’d be bad.

 

 

A/N: Hey I answered more than I thought I would. I should give myself a pat on the back. Also hope you enjoyed Wallace. I’m going to be having fun with him. Anyway hope this answered some questions. I’ll explain more…eventually…one day.

 

Ky111: Thank you for the comments. It is my largest project so trying to keep it tied together but keep enough mystery is kinda hard. I did get that chapter issue fixed so that should explain what occurred to Ash.

 

Unafraid: Glad you’re happy, they’ll show up soon.

 

HP-DG Etc: Glad you kept with me until this point. Thanks again for all the reviews and support!

 

Ace of Spies: I think I covered most of this in PM so thank you once more for the full featured review. I appreciate each one I get.

 

SSJ3: Yes he did but now he is suave Brock. And you’ll see him soon!

 

 


	22. Ever Grande City - Regenerator

A/N: Well hopefully this’ll start to answer some more questions and leave less questions than I normally leave. I think we’re starting to wrap up here. I’m hoping to be done by the end of the Summer but of course it all depends on my free time and my muse. Part of the issue with this chapter is that I had it partially written but it just wasn’t working so I had to restart and try a different approach.

 

A week prior to Ash’s return.

Ever Grande City – Regenerator

Pacifidlog Town – Donto Island

The sound of a light breeze rustled through the trees and ruffled the cloak of the only man on the island at the moment. Momentarily he’d have visitors though and it’d be best if he prepared. A small smirk crossed his face. Yes indeed the Aura Guardian had initiated the meeting and he was interested to see if it was true.

The man didn’t have to wait long. It was only a few minutes later that three Aura Guardians came in flying low right above the tree tops. Each was riding on their respective flying type pokemon. The cloaked Master of Team Aqua Rocket merely cocked an eyebrow, so they weren’t here on Riley’s behalf. It appeared that a few children had decided to try their hand at politicking.

He didn’t say a word or offer any sort of greeting to the three as they attempted to feel him out with their Aura powers. Not that it would do them any good, he could keep his Aura tapped down to only inches past his own body if need be, so he simply redirected their senses around him. The foolish children felt nothing other than a normal human being.

Such a trick rarely worked on higher level Aura Guardians or those sensitive enough to feel it. Riley happened to fall in both camps, hence the reason he never deigned to meet with the man. No need to give Riley a reason to side with the League even after they more or less tossed them out on their asses after Slateport.

The four stood there in the clearing, neither party saying a word as they seemed to assess each other. The Aura Guardians appeared to be more concerned than the cloaked man did.

“You’re the leader of Team Aqua Rocket…” One finally gathered the courage to address the man they had come to meet.

“I am.” Master Ketchum responded with a small smirk.

Pacifidlog Town - Donto Island

Cynthia glanced over at Lucian. The man's forehead was brimming with sweat. They had already stayed here too long. She looked down at her calculations once more just to confirm they were right. Ash was supposed to appear here but it seemed as there was no sign of him.

"How are you holding up?" Cynthia whispered as low as she could before inching herself up a little further on her stomach upon the hill they had set up on. The valley below was where he was supposed to have appeared but with the Aura Guardians so close they didn't want to alert them to their presence on the nearby island.

"We can only stay here for a little while longer, Cynthia. Even with rotating my pokemon they are starting to get worn out masking our presence from the Guardians’ patrols." Lucian replied with a frown.

Cynthia nodded and was ready to order a withdraw. It was another bedamned dead end. Just another long list of failures in finding Ash. She was about to start shimming back down the hill towards where Lucian was sitting cross legged when something caught her eye. Movement in the small clearing below.

Ever so slowly as to avoid causing the flash of the lens against the sun to be seen by those below she pulled out her binoculars and moved them up to her eyes.

"Cynthia?" Lucian queried concerned, he had felt the shift in her emotions from disappointment to surprise.

Without a response to her friend she worked on focusing in on what was occurring below. She could see a man standing there that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She was about to get up and yell, it had to be Ash! The thought dyed when she felt the rush of wind from a trio of wings.

The two dropped to the ground as three Aura Guardians flew by overhead mounted upon their respective flying pokemon. A frown crossed her face. Did they sense Ash already? A frown crossed her lips if that was the case…

"Aura Guardians are out here on the island." Cynthia finally whispered back.

"Then we've got to get out of here. I don't know if I can mask us from Aura users that are this close." Lucian replied a hint of worry entering his voice. While masking their presence from any Guardian scout passing by or when they skirted around Pacifidlog Town wasn't an issue, an up close inspection could be disastrous. 

"I know...but I think that Ash is down there and he’ll need our help if it’s him." Cynthia replied with a distracted tone. Her answer to if it was Ash or not came a moment later. The cloaked man threw off his cloak’s hood and revealed his face to the entire group on the island.

 It looked like the man that had confronted them near Slateport City back before Ash destroyed the city. Grey spikey hair that seemed to be in a perpetual mess, a thick grey mustache, hardened blue eyes, and a constant frown. It looked like time had hit fast forward and aged Ash fifty years or so.

"What's happening?" Lucian finally asked. He was becoming nervous with Cynthia's apparent disregard for his desire to leave.  

"I don't know." Cynthia frowned as she continued to watch the two groups interact. The large man in the cloak known only as the Master to her clasped the hand of the leader of the Aura Guardians or at least she assumed as such. An alliance? A business deal? Whatever it was it didn't bode well for them.

Pacifidlog Town – Donto Island

“You can promise us safe passage, we couldn’t risk going through any of the League controlled ports. If we left from our port too many people would notice.” The leader of the merry little band of traitorous Aura Guardian’s put it all out there.

“And you’re sure that the information is correct?” Master Ketchum raised an eyebrow at the representative before him.

“Of course, we lifted the information directly from Riley.” The young man responded.

Pacifidlog Town – Donto Island

"I think the Guardians just made a deal with Aqua Rocket." Cynthia finally whispered as she continued to watch the situation unfold below. If only she had the ability to hear what they were talking about. A small frown crossed her face when she saw one of the Guardians pull out a case.

They had to get closer to hear what was going on. She was about to order Lucian to pack it up and move in closer when an altercation broke out below. Her attention refocused upon the action occurring below.

Pacifidlog Town – Donto Island

“Well I certainly appreciate all the lengths that you’ve gone to.” So that was where the Orb was, the Cave of Origins. He probably should have known in hindsight, still better safe than sorry. Now that he knew he could make his move. Once the orb was secured it would only be a matter of time before Hoenn fell. The remaining nations would fall before they could rally. That was for the future, for now he had to rid himself of these little pests. He lived by the rule to never trust anyone that would truly betray their leader.

“While I cannot guarantee safe passage through Aqua Rocket’s territory like originally planned, I shall grant you safe passage to the afterlife.” With a flare of his Red Aura he smirked in amusement as wariness was replaced by fear. The leader attempted to counter his attack but he was too slow.

With a brief pulse his Aura overloaded the outputs of the younger Aura Guardian. With a final pulse he pushed his power directly into the young man and started to overload the Guardian’s core. The young man started to scream as he felt his Aura building up inside him but he couldn’t release it with the outputs blocked.

“What did you do to me?” The leader screamed out as his power started to surge. He attempted to quell it but he was too weak to overpower the blocks that had effectively been placed on his core. He felt a burning sensation start in his chest as his core started to overload. The burning sensation started to spread out but it didn’t help, the pressure continued to build.

“I’ve blocked your output, you’ll find that you can no longer release your Aura powers. I was kind enough to destabilize your core and infuse it with my own energy. Your Aura is currently trying to overpower my own…of course that is causing the power to overload in your core. With no release, I’ve effectively turned you into a bomb. Struggle all you like but soon you’ll explode.” Master Ketchum informed the young Guardian with no small hint of amusement on his face.

The three remaining people in the small meadow watched as the young man fell to the ground. While Master Ketchum stood where he was, the other two Guardians stepped back from their friend. The scene reminded Master Ketchum of Ash Ketchum’s fate…on a much smaller scale.

He watched the process dispassionately as the Aura Guardian let out one last scream of pain before he fell to the ground and started to claw at his face. The man’s eyes started to glow purple from the combination of red and blue Aura. The power was finally coming to a head. The young man’s skin started to fissure, revealing underneath lines of purple Aura. Finally when it seemed that his body could take no more the man disappeared in the blast of a small explosion that rocked the field.

The miniature explosion had caused a small circle of burnt ground around the man to spread forward around his immediate vicinity. Master Ketchum raised a hand and let a small bit of his red Aura appear in front of him to shield him from the blast. The charred ground spread around Master Ketchum as he had been more than powerful enough to deflect the blast.

Where once the Aura Guardian stood was now nothing more than a smoldering pile of human remains. The internal explosion had literally blown the man apart from the inside out. The chest burst open and appeared to be completely charred around the edges. His limbs were split down the middle with the skin coming off in sheets of molten flesh revealing bone and muscle below. The explosion had caused a spear of energy to lance out his neck leaving his head peeled off to the side.

 “Hmmm…such a weakling.” Master Ketchum commented to himself as he observed his handy work. It wasn’t too much of a surprise really, no one would have the type of power Ash had. Whereas this man had been a powder keg, Ash Ketchum had been the equivalent of a nuclear bomb. The fight with Ash had been different and unexpected compared to what had occurred in the past when he used the power on Aura Guardians.

It had been helpful that Duplica had almost killed that troublesome Sinnoh Champion. Once Ash was no longer thinking clearly due to his perceived notion that she was indeed dead, it was merely an act of shutting off Ash’s core in a surprise attack. The uncontrolled Aura caused him to turn into essentially a megaton bomb of potential energy. Ash had been much stronger and therefore had a much longer build up time until he exploded. The pain from the power build up had clearly caused him to go mad or else he doubted Ash would have wandered into Slateport.

It had all assisted his goals so he hadn’t stepped in to stop the young man. Although if he was honest that mettlesome psychic pokemon, Mewtwo, had saved many important League icons. If enough had died in that incident he would have taken Hoenn by now. Such a frustrating situation that the pokemon had put him in, the sudden attack by the two remaining Aura Guardians broke off his thoughts.

Without missing a beat he leaned to the right and then to the left, dodging both Aura Spheres by the Aura Guardians. So weak…they couldn’t even form any other attack than the Aura Sphere attack. Pitiful. With but a thought two red blades of Aura energy appeared on each hand. The manifestations of Aura energy seemed to float slightly above his hands.

The two remaining Guardians hesitated…and in that moment he struck. With a flick of his hands he let the beams of red energy extend and pierce through the throats of the two Guardians’ necks. It left their uniforms intact which was just what he wanted. With the three dealt with and the information in his hands, it seemed it was time to deal with his uninvited guests.

Did they really think that they could hide by bending the Aura around them with the use of Psychic powers? It left a small but noticeable dead spot around the area. Perhaps a novice wouldn’t notice but he knew they were there from the moment he appeared. Of course he had no need to handle them himself.

Pacifidlog Town – Donto Island

"We've got to..." Cynthia turned around and trailed off to find Koga standing there. Lucian had been knocked out and was slumped over behind the public face of Team Aqua Rocket. The Ninja Master raised an eyebrow when Cynthia's hand drifted down towards her pokeballs. A kunai was already in his hand.

"I suggest you don't." The Ninja Master ordered and before his prey could muster a defense he struck her in the side of the head just below the ear. The Champion of Sinnoh collapsed in a limp heap.

Koga shook his head in disgust. While they were both powerful trainers and excellent fighters, masters of stealth they were not. While he didn’t have the power of Aura like Master Ketchum, it was easy enough to track the two since they arrived. They had made enough noise at least.

“Impressive as always.” Master Ketchum commented as he made his way up the hill.

“You expected anything less than your second in command?” Koga noted the two bodies that were slung over either shoulder of the man. It was then that he noted the Aura Guardian uniforms that they still had on. “And just what will you do with those?”

“Does my master of stealth have to have it explained to him?” Master Ketchum chuckled in amusement.

“We’re going to go steal the orb while wearing Aura Guardian uniforms. Once the survivors alert the League that Aura Guardians were responsible the League will of course counter by sending any Aura users against the Aura Guardians. It will help wipe out most of the Aura users in Hoenn before they go to ground.”

Koga nodded in understanding although the Master never went into it, he had a strange obsession with wiping out everyone that could access the Aura be they Guardian, sensitive, or user. It mattered not to him, Master Ketchum had a standing order to kill them all. It was something that Koga always wondered about but the Master kept it close to his chest.

“What should I do with these two?” Koga asked.

“The purple haired one holds no use for me.” Master Ketchum stated before he started to walk away without a care. He trusted that Koga would follow his orders without having to be watched.

A flash of metal caught the sun before a thin red line appeared across Lucian’s throat. The Ninja Master left the body as he threw the Champion’s body over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He knew not what the Master wanted with the girl but it probably would have been a kinder death to dispose of her like he had with Lucian.

-

Cynthia blinked as she came back to consciousness. Her entire head ached especially her right side. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to her head. A groan escaped her lips as she blinked. It took her a moment to readjust to the lighting. She was in a cell...which unfortunately happened all too often whenever she came to from being knocked out.

"Finally awake are we?" A sibilant voice came from just outside the cell.

"Where's Lucian?" Cynthia demanded as she took stock of her situation. She didn't see her friend anywhere nearby in the other cells.

"Dead." Master Ketchum chuckled in amusement as he stepped out into the light.

Cynthia's eyes widened, Lucian was dead? It was him...she was right. He had been the one back near Slateport that had...she still didn't know what he had done.

"Ah...you recognize me from before. Well I suppose I should properly introduce myself." With a flourish he tipped the hood back off of his head before he swung the cloak off of his body and around so that it rested over his shoulder. Underneath was a face that Cynthia would have recognized anywhere.

The Master had messy silver colored hair with shoots of black still left running through the messy locks. Dark chocolate eyes appeared weary and tired. The face minus some wrinkle lines was a dead match for Ash Ketchum.

Cynthia just stared at the man in surprise. Of all the possibilities...this...this was something she never would have expected. Ash's own flesh and blood had tried to kill him.

"Don't think I haven't kept up on your attempts to bring him back. I’ve always admired your dedication Cynthia…well every time fate allows it.” Master Ketchum shook his head in amusement.

“You know I did this all for you. After the first time, I set it all in motion, the events to kill Giovanni were easy enough but killing Ash has always proved difficult...for some reason I always tend to run into…complications." Master Ketchum continued as he saw that Cynthia was still in a state of shock attempting to comprehend this revelation.

"How?" Cynthia finally whispered out as she stared at the man with hard diamond eyes.

"Oh quite simple." Master Ketchum chuckled as he lifted up one of his hands. A red Aura started to pulsate from the end of his fingertips until it formed into a small ball of energy. He absently bounced the small ball of energy up and down in his hand.

"You see I simply overloaded his system and turned him into a ticking time bomb. I burned out his ability to release his Aura and the buildup eventually caused him to implode, killing him." Master Ketchum explained before he snapped his hand closed and with it the Aura Sphere disappeared into thin air.

"Monster!" Cynthia screamed as her cool composure broke and she attempted to grab at Master Ketchum through the cell bars.

"Simply doing what needed to be done, you see the Ketchum line has been cursed for generations with the Red Aura. It only causes chaos and destruction. It lay dormant for generations until Ash's father showed promise in the field. Before I could kill him, Ash was born. The boy of course carried the curse as well." Master Ketchum shook his head as if it truly did sadden him.

"What about you? You use it too, you're a hypocrite if you're working to wipe out your own Grandson yet you live." Cynthia pointed out unwilling to admit the fact that Ash Ketchum was dead as this man claimed. Even while she called him out her thoughts sunk back to his previous words. It almost made it sound like had done this before…but no…none of her text had ever pointed to such a possibility.

"Grandson...of course." Master Ketchum chuckled before continuing on. "You see I've found a way to control it...at a great cost and I vowed to never let it happen again. The only way was to wipe the Ketchum line."

Cynthia frowned at the information given to her. The man was still being cryptic and hadn't really answered her questions although now she at least knew what had happened to Ash. Still... "If you only did all of this to kill Ash Ketchum then why are you working with Aqua Rocket, why would you give them the orb?"

Master Ketchum leaned closer to Cynthia for a moment a giant grin on his face. "Well if there is one thing we agree on, it's that Ash Ketchum survives the impossible and until I see his body, I won't believe he's truly gone. If he's still alive this will bring him out one way or another."          

"So you'd let the world burn under Aqua Rocket just to make sure you've killed one person?" Cynthia questioned incredulously. 

"Do you really think I’m so small minded? Of course the Ketchum line is the current threat to the world but any those sensitive in Aura always have the chance to develop the ability. To keep the world safe the only answer is to wipe away all the current Guardians and any line that has ever produced Aura users. In fact I believe you yourself use Aura...while not intentionally and you'd never be able to become any sort of Guardian it would explain your unnatural strength as a trainer and your bond with your pokemon." Master Ketchum conjectured with a thoughtful smile.

"And you believe that?" Cynthia asked incredulously. "You believe that wiping away anyone that could possibly go out of control later is the answer? Why do all this why didn't you try and teach Ash or his father to control it like you?" Cynthia continued to try and understand the man's line of thinking.

"You can't teach control." Master Ketchum. "The only question is whether you choose the path of the demon or the path of the warrior. Ash Ketchum has chosen the path of the demon...he lets it rule him and his actions. If he is truly still alive as you believe it will be kinder to put him down like the rabid dog he is." With that he left Cynthia below in the cells. 

The blonde haired Champion stared at the door long after this Master Ketchum left her mind briefly going back to that day five years ago. It only lasted a moment before she forcefully shut the memory out. Now was not the time for her to get lost in her memories. If that horrible man also believed Ash was still alive there may still be hope yet.

Her thoughts turned to the conversation and the odd way he had hinted at doing this all before. The chance was slim she did recall a text that theorized if someone found Palkia the person could get caught in the space warp just like if someone found Dialga they would be caught in a time warp. There were many theories as to the extent of Palkia's powers. While Dialga was thought to be able to move someone much like Celebei back and forth across time. Palkia had the potential for much more, still, Cynthia saw no reason to jump at shadows and possibilities until she was able to research it. To do that though she'd have to work on getting out.

-

Master Ketchum shook his head as he left the cell. It was still jarring to see her alive and still so full of life. The last time he had seen her prior to their brief meeting five years was a long time ago. She still had that burning fire and the will to save Ash just like when he knew her. In the end it was misguided but she was never wavered in her belief that Ash could be saved. 

He glanced down at his hands a small bit of his Red Aura leaking through before he clamped down on the power he had scarified everything in his world to contain. Sometimes he did wonder if it his path was the right one. It was certainly the just path and the one that minimized the deaths of those he once cared about but not for the first time did he wrestle with his decisions. “Still though..."

 

Two weeks after Cynthia's capture.

Ever Grande City -

Gary stared across the table at Ash with his elbows resting on the table and a cigarette dangling out of his hand. To Gary’s left sat Wallace, the man looked like he wanted to be anywhere other than the current meeting. His eyes wandered towards the window of the conference room in the Ever Grande City war room. Finally to Gary’s right sat Phoebe, the Elite Four member looked less than pleased with the fact she was stuck across the table from Wallace. It was a closed meeting that even the other members of the Elite Four had been excluded from for security purposes.

“Well you’ve certainly put us in a pickle here Mr. Ketchum.” Wallace groused as he finally decided to call the meeting to order.

“I’d say I’m surprised but this is classic Ash.” Gary commented as he brought the cigarette to his lips and took a drag off of it.

“Well we can't exactly declare that the Burning Nightmare has returned and saved us all from Aqua Rocket.” Phoebe interjected as she tapped her fingers along the table. A steady gaze never left Ash as if he would jump up and disappear at any moment.

Wallace glanced out the window again and sighed. A beautiful sunset ruined by the mangled wreckage of the ship that Aqua Rocket had arrived in. It was still smoking from fires below deck that were still smoldering. He honestly had no idea what he’d do about that giant eyesore.

“You’re still technically an enemy of the state Mr. Ketchum but I really don’t want to do all that paper work.” Wallace turned to Phoebe with his best puppy dog eyes. “Can you please do it for me my darling Phi Phi.”

Phoebe’s eye twitched a little but she refused to even acknowledge her commander. Instead she turned her attention to Ash Ketchum. “Wallace does have a point, while Gary Oak has been absolved of all warrants, you are still technically a criminal in the state of Hoenn. While I can overlook your presence here thanks to saving our city, the people won’t welcome you here, not after Slateport.”

Ash’s carefree expression fell away at the mention of Slateport. Perhaps it was due to being in the future and the fact that Slateport incident was literally ancient history there but he had forgotten for these people it had only been five years.

“Oh Phi Phi, why do you have to be so logical?” Wallace complained in an almost whine. “The Burning Nightmare of Cinnabar died five years ago. Clearly this is just his brother that in no way caused the destruction of Slateport City.”

“Oh sure, some man that looks just like Ash turns up and is actually a secret brother…very believable.” Phoebe commented sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m so glad you’re on board.” Wallace grinned, clearly ignoring the sarcasm. As usual he got right under her skin and the dark haired girl turned away from him in a huff.

“Jerk.” Phoebe muttered in annoyance.

“While I’d love to talk about whatever excuse Hoenn is going to shove down the public’s throat, I’m more interested in getting back in touch with Cynthia and a few other people from Kanto." Ash finally decided to end the debate since he never really planned on staying in Hoenn anyway.

"Oh shit..." Gary muttered at the mention of Cynthia again. He had been so hung up on Ash's reappearance which if he was honest, he was still processing, he forgot about Cynthia. It was in that moment he remembered parts of their conversation. Cynthia was off somewhere looking for Ash but he couldn't remember if she told him or not.

Ash turned his attention to Gary and raised an eyebrow at his friend's utterance. Gary all of a sudden looked quite busy staring out at the window doing his damnedest not to make eye contact with Ash.

"Well that is a problem." Wallace mentioned vaguely as he looked down at the report that had been provided to him prior to the meeting. In fact they had more than just the problem of a missing Champion. No it appeared that the attack from Aqua Rocket was a possibly front to hide the movements of the Aura Guardians. 

Phoebe narrowed her eyes before she reached over the table and grabbed the report out of her boss's hands.

"Phi Phi!" Wallace almost whined in annoyance at his subordinate.

"Tell me you weren't going to try and blow off whatever you were reading as if it wasn't any huge deal and I'll give it back." Phoebe responded absently as she started scanning the document. Her eyes widened for a moment, so, the Aura Guardians had finally picked a side it seemed. Roxanne dead and Flannery injured from the attack it was amazing they hadn't lost the entire team guarding the orb. This didn't bode well.

"What's going on?" Ash finally cut in his impatience finally getting to him. It wasn't helping him that the Champion of Hoenn didn’t seem to take anything seriously. How he managed to hold the region together was beyond him.

“The attack you helped stop was a massive diversion.” Phoebe responded solemnly. “They were after the orb that supposedly controls Kyogre. While Team Aqua Rocket kept us busy, the Aura Guardians hit the Cave of Origins and wiped out the guard we had placed there.”

“That’s not good. If they know how to activate it…” A frown crossed Gary’s face. It meant they were too late. It wasn’t like he’d even have the source material now to study how the orb worked and how it may be activated. The whole point of being here was to stop a Legendary from becoming active. Now he was dealing with something way over his head.

“Yes...that information Cynthia found five years ago may actually come to fruition. While I may be a water type trainer even I realize the world needs balance. Although it would make my spectacles at contests that much more beautiful...just picture it...my water pokemon creating a rainbow of colors against the back drop of the setting sun and the ocean waves.” Wallace unexpectedly seemed to go into a daze as he envisioned the possibilities.

“Can you be serious for more than one minute!” Phoebe exclaimed before throwing her hands up in frustration. The normally cheerful master of Ghost types threw her hands up in the air to get out her frustration at the man but it seemed to do nothing.

“The Aura Guardians gave us some trouble last time but I never thought they’d do something like this…” Ash trailed off as he seemed to go into thought as well.

“You’ve missed a lot Ash.” Gary interjected. “The Guardians were partially blamed for Slateport as they failed to bring the dangers of what was occurring to Stone’s attention. If he had known he may have been able to stop Slateport from ever occurring.”

“Oh…” Ash muttered more to himself than anyone else.

“So just when were you going to tell us that Cynthia and Lucian have been MIA for the last two weeks and Sinnoh is asking us for any information on them.” Phoebe glared up at Wallace as she held up the report to her superior.

“Wait what! Cynthia is missing!” Ash exclaimed coming out of his thoughts.

Gary didn’t say a word but now he really wished he had paid more attention to Cynthia’s plan. If he had...dammit, he could have stopped her or at least gone along to help. How could he have known she was going to actually stroll into enemy territory though.

“Hello! Are you going to answer me you stupid idiot! This is an official request from Sinnoh. They found information left by Lucian detailing their plan and expected return time and they have yet to report in!” Phoebe attempted to gain Wallace’s attention by throwing the report at her superior.

“Well I don’t see why we have to get involved in that...it seems that Cynthia and Lucian went on a little excursion down to Donto Island and they haven’t returned yet...” Wallace finally responded without actually responding to Phoebe’s accusation of withholding information. The Champion of Hoenn was interrupted by Ash before he could go on..

“What are you going to do to find her?” Ash demanded as he slammed his fist onto the table for empahsis. This was the last thing he had expected upon his return. While he wasn’t allowed near any history books he had more or less wheedled some information out of Stan and the young researcher had confirmed that Cynthia lived at least until he returned. Stan had been mum on the information after that but it didn’t matter, Ash wouldn’t lose another not after Leaf he had vowed never to allow it to happen again no matter what the cost.

“Well officially we can’t do anything. All our resources are devoted to stopping Aqua Rocket and now it seems we’ll have to label the Aura Guardians as enemies too.” Wallace lamented about the situation before he seemed to be pondering something.

“Of course…I wouldn’t stop someone from looking if they were off the book...someone that doesn’t officially exist anymore...if that someone were to get caught the Hoenn League would deny any and all knowledge of their existence and actions. If they were caught within the borders of Hoenn I dare say we would have to claim we had no working knowledge of a criminal of the state working for us.”

“Of course, it wouldn’t do for you to be seen conspiring with a known element of destruction and what message would that send to the people about their government.” Ash agreed with a small smile. So that was how they wanted to play it. That’d be fine, he worked better solo anyway. The plans were already churning through his head. He’d head down to deal with the Aura Guardians first. After all the trouble they caused him last time, he’d be more than happy to pay them back.

“I’m sorry to say we won’t be able to offer much support once you leave. Even if you are successful and we end the threat of Aqua Rocket we won’t be able to make anything public. You’ll have to leave our region the moment the threat has ended.” Wallace continued a serious expression momentarily crossing his face although it seemed to disappear behind his normal disinterest.

“No.” Gary started the moment he saw that look on Ash’s face. It meant a stupid idea was about to be hatched in that skull of Ash’s and it was bound to be quite simple. Smash his way in and ignite anyone that got in his way using Charizard.

“What da ya mean no?” Ash responded with a raised eyebrow at Gary’s annoyed look of resignation.

“I mean I did not just find you to lose you to another idiot quest that you go off on half cocked.” Gary responded with a slight snarl.

“Who said he had to go alone?” Phoebe interjected. “We never announced your arrival. It would be quite easy to claim both you and Dawn died in the attack and your bodies were beyond our ability to recover.”

“Hoping to rope Blue into the fight by using my supposed death as an incentive to drag Kanto into your little homegrown problem, don’t think I can’t see through that thinly veiled guise.” Gary retorted with a roll of his eyes.

“The thought never crossed my mind, i’m just looking to help you and may I remind you that we would have never been put in this situation if Slateport hadn’t been destroyed.” Phoebe verbally jabbed the pair with a frown.

“Now Phi Phi these are our guests and they are doing us a favor by helping us out. Last thing we want is a war with Sinnoh over a missing Champion.” Wallace decided to finally put his foot down. It was an accepted fact that every region used others issues to their advantage. The fact that they were currently so disadvantaged thanks to the prolonged war, they didn’t have a lot of capital in the form of favors to be throwing their weight around.

Phoebe frowned but ended up conceding in the end by looking away from Wallace with a huff and the cross of her arms.

“Now, we’ll simply tell your companions that you arrived early and we sent you ahead to study the orb. If they press we’ll inform them that you are in a location that is beyond communication.” Wallace went on without sparing his subordinate a glance.

“And when they learn that the Aura Guardians got through your defenses there and stole the orb?” Gary asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Once they arrive i’m sure they’ll be too busy helping with the clean up after Aqua Rocket’s attack. Besides...someone needs to help us move that giant eyesore out of the bay.” Wallace gestured to the still smoldering command ship of Aqua Rocket that sat there half sunk in the bay.

“Nice...so you’re going to use Kanto’s reinforcements for exterior decorating…unbelievable.” Phoebe muttered to herself.

It was not lost on Ash and Gary either. While at the start of the meeting it seemed that Phoebe was running the show, the moment it truly got serious, Wallace stepped in. This man was the leader of the Hoenn region. He hid away behind a mask of disinterest and boredom. Underneath he clearly was a cunning individual. If he kept the rest of the members coming from Kanto busy with removing the ship from the bay all day less time to question where Gary and Dawn disappeared to...also less chance they’d hear anything about the attack by the Guardians.

“Well then, it is best to get you all out now while everyone is busy cleaning up from Aqua’s mess. Just remember to take your darling wife with you Gary, I really would hate to be on the receiving end of her ire.” Wallace made a show of shuddering for good measure which caused Gary to roll his eyes.

-

 

“So how are we going to get out of here undetected…” Gary muttered in annoyance as the three made their way through the back gate and out towards the hilly forest by the side of the city. While not the safest due to the clean up needed there it was better than going through the port area or down into town.

“Well...Mega Pidgeot could take us all…” Ash offered up...it felt like he was forgetting something though.

“Oh...yes very stealthy Ash. Why not just throw up a giant sign. I’m sure no one will mind the powered up Mega Pokemon. Not like they were attacked by any under Aqua’s control at all.” Gary responded sarcastically.

“Well I don’t see you offering up any better ideas...I’m sure we can use one of your flying pokemon to get us there...oh wait you don’t have any.” Ash mocked as he pulled a face at Gary to get his point across.

“The point is flying out is out of the question, this isn’t going to turn into let’s blame Gary for not planning ahead for your idiotic ideas!” Gary responded hotly a tic mark appearing above his eyebrow. Sometimes dealing with Ash made him want to beat the idiot senseless.

“Don’t you have that legendary you can call on?” Dawn interjected before the two ended up in a heated argument that ended up drawing attention to them. 

“Oh yeah!” Ash exclaimed. Right Mewtwo!

“You forgot about Mewtwo didn’t you…” Gary queried flatly.

“Uh...well…” Ash scratched the back of his head as a lopsided grin crossed his face.

“I sometimes forget how much an idiot you are sometimes…” Gary muttered to himself as he just shook his head in mock disappointment.

“I didn’t see you offering up that option.” Ash responded petulantly.

“Well he’s your pokemon numbskull!” Gary grumbled as the group got further and further into the forest and away from the bustling cityscape.

“So...umm...hmmm…” Ash began as he nervously scratched the back of his head once more...Gary wasn’t going to like this.

“What…” Gary asked as he glanced over at the still grinning idiot. He had that look on his face...that look of “I broke something but I don’t want to be in trouble” he got when he royally fucked up. He shared a worried glance with Dawn.

“So...yeah I can’t exactly call him anymore…” Ash finally offered up with an apologetic smile as if that would make it all better.

“I thought you just called out to him and he heard it.” Gary asked fearing the answer but he had a feeling it was something that was either so stupid it’d make him angry or poor planning on Ash’s part. Actually both possibilities would probably anger him.

“Well...normally he just kinda showed up...he was kinda like some kinda freaky cat...ya know all emotionally distant but every once in a while he wanted affection and would come around and beg for attention.” Ash let his explanation spill out and just ignored the fact it did kind of sound stupid.

“You’re comparing a Legendary pokemon...to a cat…” Dawn asked hesitantly. Although Gary had told her all kinds of stories about Ash she had never realized he wasn’t joking around when he said his best friend was sometimes an idiot. Internally she was somewhat worried that she was going into unknown enemy territory with these two. If they bickered all the way into the Aura Guardian's base they wouldn’t make it far…

 _“Like a cat am I?”_ A sibilant voice broke through the bickering as it echoed throughout all three trainer’s heads.

Ash looked up ahead in surprise at first and then broke out into a grin. “Hey...long time no see! See guys, I knew he’d eventually come around.” As if to make his point he gave the pair a big thumbs up as if this had all been planned.

“...” Mewtwo stared contemptuously at his trainer...five long years and this was what he got. The legendary suddenly was reminded why he didn’t follow the idiot around all too often. Just being in his presence for 30 seconds had surely cost him some brain cells.

“Aww...geez...don’t be like that.” Ash practically whined at the look he was getting. “We need you to transport us down to Donto Island discreetly I might add…”

 _“I’m not a Taxi service…”_ Mewtwo responded petulantly as he eyed his sometimes stupid “trainer” and perhaps by sometimes he meant every single moment of his life. First being compared to a cat then being used as little more than a transport service. _“There is a reason Lapras is called the transport pokemon you dolt.”_

“Yeah but we need someone discreet and you’re the only one that can do it...please!” Ash begged.

“This is just pathetic.” Gary muttered to Dawn.

“Yeah he has to beg his own pokemon to help him...but I can kinda see why…” Dawn responded as she watched the exchange.

“Sadly it has always been like this…” Gary responded with a sigh. “And to make matters worse...I can even see where Mewtwo is coming from most of the time.”

 _“So you believe it prudent for me to whisk you away to a new life threatening adventure right after you return five years after I believe you died without so much as a little bit of concern for what I’ve done without you for the past five years?”_ The question was rhetorical of course...his “trainer” rarely thought things through or from other people’s perspective. The genetic pokemon half wondered if Ash even remembered him during his time away. Clearly Ash thought of it like one giant vacation by how he was acting. It was as if the moron just assumed everyone would pick up where they left off from five years ago with nary a concern.

“Well when you put it like that…” Ash grumbled “Still it isn’t fair.”

 _“Not fair that I use facts…”_ Mewtwo responded deadpan as he seemed to enjoy watching his “trainer” squirm under his intense gaze and rather accurate use said facts that Ash claimed were unfair.

“Ash’s inability to fully understand the emotional impact his disappearance and supposed death had on everyone aside…” Gary took this chance to pile it on his hapless friend. The idiot really deserved some more crap for everything he went through not to mention Cynthia. “We could really use your help to get us discreetly into Aura Guardian territory.”

 _“Very well...on the condition that you cease treating me like your own personal taxi service...I do not exist to make inconvenient trips easier…that being said.”_ Mewtwo’s face darkened into a vicious scowl as he lifted his “trainer” up and pressed him against a nearby large oak tree. _“If you ever disappear on me again I will personally hunt you down and slaughter you.”_

 _“Do I make myself clear!”_ With a little extra push he embedded Ash into the tree.

“Crystal…” Ash gulped as he managed to croak out his answer under intense threats of death. Suddenly he remembered why Mewtwo was so scary and considered one of the most powerful pokemon in existence legendary status aside.

“Woah...scary…” Dawn whispered under her breath as she observed the entire incident. She wouldn’t be doing anything to piss off Mewtwo that was for sure.

“Scarier when you remember Ash technically has control of a pokemon with enough power to crush almost any opponent he ran across.” Gary whispered back.

“So why doesn’t he have Mewtwo with him at all times?” Dawn inquired.

Mewtwo cut into the whispered conversation through the psychic link. Sometimes the legendary wondered how smart humans actually were. _“Because if I was forced to be in the company of my idiot “trainer” at all times of the day I fear my powers would wane as my brain cells died.”_

“Can’t argue with that.” Gary agreed with an authoritative nod.

“I guess I can see that…” Dawn hummed in thought as she stared between the pokemon and Ash still trying to pull himself out of the Ash shaped indent in the tree.

“I hate all of you…” Ash muttered as he managed to extricate himself with minimal splinters.

 _“As if I cared.”_ Mewtwo commented snidely as he glanced over his “trainer” for the first time. He was surprised he didn’t notice it before but he could see it now, the suppression system was gone yet Ash wasn’t going into a crazy fit of rage or being overtaken by the Aura. _“You mastered your Aura powers while you were gone?”_

“Er…” Ash scratched his head. “Well not exactly…”

Mewtwo simply raised his eyebrow in interest at Ash’s confirmation that he hadn’t actually mastered his Aura powers. It meant something else must be at play and it would probably piss him off.

“You see...like I told Gary yesterday I found a way to divert my Aura powers to my pokemon to allow them the ability to mega evolve.” Ash started.

 _“Mega Evolve...so I take it you’ve found a way to use it without killing the pokemon?”_ Mewtwo knew the method that was used but he couldn’t believe that Ash would literally drain the life force of those he considered friends.

“Yep!” Ash responded cheerfully. He glanced back to see Dawn and Gary taking notes...probably trying to work on how it all worked “Gary’s grandson worked it out luckily before I died upon arrival. I was still overloading but he managed to fit me with this.” Ash held up the glove which had multiple stones on it. “Normal trainers are able to buy charges to help sustain the pokemon and once it is drained it reverts the pokemon to normal form and it passes out before it can lose any life force.”

Gary was a mite surprised that Ash was explaining this and it actually sounded intelligent...almost like he was actually paying attention...almost.

“My Aura uses the same concept...only the glove draws in my Aura power so it keeps it from reaching unsafe levels. I’m not able to really use my Aura too much but I can use it for simple things. I’m working with Lucario on it. So to keep me from going insane it distributes the power to my pokemon...which remind me…” Ash shot a grin before he held the glove up towards Mewtwo.

 _“Wha…”_ The genetic pokemon was hilariously cut off mid sentence as Ash depressed the purple stone on the glove causing the psychic pokemon to disappear in a beam of purple light.

“Did you just…?” Gary snapped his head up at the sudden disappearance of Mewtwo with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not a complete idiot…” Ash said with a roll of his eyes...a moment later he depressed the purple beam and the genetic pokemon materialized again.

Mewtwo reappeared with a glare at the sudden recapture and release. The only reason he allowed Ash to do it in the first place was the fact that if he was ever hurt on a mission and remained uncaptured by a trainer he risked capture by someone with less than savory goals.

“Now!” Ash depressed the crystal again and a purple beam of energy wrapped itself around Mewtwo. Without a cool phrase thought up quite yet he just allowed the change to occur to his pokemon. A moment later Mewtwo burst out of the cocoon of energy. Where once stood the pissed off genetic pokemon now stood a taller version of itself. The pokemon had gained height and bulked out. Mewtwo X took center stage.

Mewtwo glanced down to see his arms larger and that he now stood taller than before. He could feel the power coursing through his body. New moves came to mind unbidden. The preoccupation with the change diverted his rage with Ash for the moment.

“So whatcha think buddy? I can’t keep it up indefinitely especially with your power draw but it could come in handy if I ever really need you.” Ash grinned before he turned back to see the slack jawed Gary and Dawn. Even though the two had no actual Psychic or Aura powers they could feel the power radiating off the genetic pokemon.

 _“I approve...for once in our relationship I find myself intrigued by your abilities.”_ Mewtwo said a slight smirk crossing his face.

“Glad you...wait...was that a backhanded compliment?” Ash gave a half hearted glare at the genetic pokemon.

“Put down by his own pokemon...how sad.” Dawn commented.

“Um hmm.” Gary agreed with a hum.

 _“Now...now I can punch through their barrier...yes I can take you all right to her...but wait...that can’t be right...”_ Mewtwo’s senses had expanded a blending of Aura and Psychic abilities raised him to an entirely new level. He could sense Cynthia...but she wasn’t with the Aura Guardians...she was...no...the Pokemon’s eyes widened when he identified the other presence. It didn’t make sense…

“Mewtwo what’s wrong?” Ash queried unsure what his pokemon had been about to say.

 _“It all makes sense now...everything makes sense. We have to leave now if we have a chance of stopping the plans put into motion.”_ The Psychic pokemon didn’t extrapolate on what he meant instead he gathered up his Psychic powers in order to teleport the group to their destination. Without little more than a thought he simply used his new powers to share his conclusions with the three.

 

A/N: Well there you have it...I had to stop it there since I needed a natural breaking point and I foresee the next chapter being pretty large. We’re closing in on getting this bad boy wrapped up. I am foreseeing three-five more chapters. Next two chapters will mainly be some flash backing. Mainly what happened prior to Slateport to a certain extent along with the history of Master Ketchum. Then we’ll have the final big battle for Hoenn and the epilogue.

Sorry again it has taken me so long to get this out. Life and such at this point. To make it a little better though I am going to concentrate on getting this story done so I won’t be jumping around stories like I normally do at least not until this story is finished. Hopefully that’ll make it a little better for everyone that does read this.

 

Again read and review let me know what you loved and what you hated. If I really messed something up I don’t mind hearing about it. 


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